I have always enjoyed learning. Even in my days as a younger person, when I was not exactly the best "student" in the schoolhouse, I have enjoyed learning new things. I hope I never outgrow my desire to learn as I rack up more and more "rings around my tree trunk."
Sometimes, increased knowledge is fun, especially if that knowledge comes from doing something you enjoy. For example, I have enjoyed increasing my skills as a photographer; especially when covering sporting events. Then there are those times when knowledge comes as a result of less-than-pleasant experiences. Many of us have learned that hot irons are hot because we had the experience of touching a hot iron. Those kinds of lessons can be invaluable, as one traverses through life.
Recently, I have learned some lessons of the latter kind. Those of you who are faithful participants in our weekly visits know that I found myself a bit too close to the action during a football game at Aucilla Christian Academy. Three fractures to one's left ankle will teach one a valuable lesson about leaving adequate distance between one and the action taking place near the sidelines. That alone is a valuable bit of knowledge that I gladly pass along to anyone, hopefully saving them the difficulties of having to learn that lesson first-hand.
This experience has taught me other ancillary, yet no less valuable, lessons along the way. One is that putting the toilet seat down is a real consideration. As a loving brother of two older sisters, I have thought of myself as being fairly considerate of the female-type people in my life in regards to the raising and lowering of the toilet seat. Having to maneuver a walker into a restroom sometimes doesn't leave a person much ability or forethought to check the elevation of the toilet seat before sitting down. At this point, I want to officially apologize to any females in my life who may have been the unwitting victim of any previous oversights on that matter on my part in the past. My attitude of "putting the seat down is 'women's work'" has changed in recent days. I like to think it has changed for the better.
Another lesson learned is that most people are quite nice and will quickly hold the door for a guy in a cast hobbling along with a walker. Believe me when I tell you, those small acts of kindness are not unnoticed.
I am very grateful to be typing this at my own desk here at Greene Publishing, Inc. I still have a long way to go before I am back at 100 percent, but I am grateful for the experience. That may seem hard to comprehend and I'm not saying that the experience has been a barrel of laughs. But I have survived and I am doing okay and will certainly be better for having been through the trials. I figure that's a pretty good lesson to learn.