The philosopher's donkey

The philosopher had a donkey, which travelled everywhere with him. Sometimes the philospoher rode on his back, sometimes he walked alongside, and always he talked, to the sky and to the donkey. Silently the donkey became well versed over the years in the art of rhetoric, the skill of debate and the demands of logic.

One day the philosopher went on a short trip, but before he went, he tethered the donkey between two identical bales of straw, at identical distances from the donkey, so that he could easily reach either. However, lacking a rational basis on which to choose between either of the bales, the donkey starved to death.

We religious or ex-religious folk, particularly Protestants in my experience, are terrified of getting anything wrong. Getting things wrongs seems to be part of a learning style that we were not really exposed to.  It was always much more important to be right than to learn how to learn, than to learn better ways to learn. Of course, in my case, you have to add the burden of being English - for Englishmen, getting something wrong can cause acute embarrassment, the worst thing of all.

It's almost as though life were some kind of trap, and the great Skymaster is scrutinizing our every move, putting sin on our account. It's an unhealthy trait, and it betrays a certain narcissism which is a very unpleasant characteristic.  We don't learn our basics this way as babies - it's a learned style of learning, and it can be unlearned too, though it seems to be a lifelong task.

So it's vital to make a point of trying new things, in order to get used once again to getting things wrong before you get them right, to build in a little humility and empathy with those who learn at a different pace from us. This means launching ourselves each day with a mission to learn humbly as well as teach humbly, in equal measure.