I was chatting with my buddy, Billy Bingley and we started thinking about our favourite movie characters. He loves Spock from Star Trek, but I couldn’t help thinking about one of my heroes in one of my favorite movies. I’m talking about Yoda, the fuzzy, pointy-eared little firecracker from Revenge of the Jedi. Do you remember the scene when Luke is trying to use the force to move stones in the swamp? Here is that cool exchange:
LUKE
Master, moving stones around is
one thing. This is totally
different.
YODA
No! No different! Only different
in your mind. You must unlearn
what you have learned.
LUKE
(focusing, quietly)
All right, I'll give it a try.
YODA
No! Try not. Do. Or do not.
There is no try.
Yoda nailed it. I feel like I have to unlearn many of my learnings from life, especially from high school. I have to unlearn the idea that someone else is responsible for my learning. I was a 50s-60s kid in high school and never finished anything hard, except for goofing around and generally being lazy. I figured out the system, and in a couple of those courses where I thought I failed, I was astounded to see I got a 50, mostly because the teacher didn’t want to see me again. That’s what school generally was – a good try. Now that I’m out of school, I see I’ve got to go a little harder, I have to do more than try. But I’m handcuffed, because I don’t know what I need to try hard at. I’ve got some serious soul searching to do about who I am and what I want to do in life. Geez, I’m going to have to get outta bed for the next 30 years, and I really want to jump out every morning and do something I love. But how do I find out my true passions in life?
I was talking to an old high school buddy, Terry, a cat who had a terrible time with school. Poor guy couldn’t bluff his way through Hamlet, so when teach asked for a 3-page paper, he totally folded his cards. He burrowed an essay from the Internet and was caught. He failed the course. He always wanted to be a firefighter, and thought he’d never need to write a 3-page essay again, and just didn’t see the point. Turns out after high school and he was into a second year of training in firefighters school and they asked him for – you guessed it – a 3 page paper about something to do with fires. He was in a panic. I told him I’d help him bluff his way through it, even though I wasn’t a genius with essays myself. What’s the point of this story? Mmmmmm. Give me a second. Oh yeah, maybe school does offer something relevant after all. But we just don’t see it at the time.
Hey, if you have to do something, you may as well give it your all. Terry needed to know why we write papers in high school. He needed to know writing essays would come in handy some day. . "If only I had known about the importance of this skill way back when..." doesn't cut it. I really need to unlearn those bad high school habits.
BTW, Terry got a C on the firefighting paper, one of the best marks I.... err.... he ever got.
Try not. Do or do not. There is no try. Smart little critter, that Yoda.
LUKE
Master, moving stones around is
one thing. This is totally
different.
YODA
No! No different! Only different
in your mind. You must unlearn
what you have learned.
LUKE
(focusing, quietly)
All right, I'll give it a try.
YODA
No! Try not. Do. Or do not.
There is no try.
Yoda nailed it. I feel like I have to unlearn many of my learnings from life, especially from high school. I have to unlearn the idea that someone else is responsible for my learning. I was a 50s-60s kid in high school and never finished anything hard, except for goofing around and generally being lazy. I figured out the system, and in a couple of those courses where I thought I failed, I was astounded to see I got a 50, mostly because the teacher didn’t want to see me again. That’s what school generally was – a good try. Now that I’m out of school, I see I’ve got to go a little harder, I have to do more than try. But I’m handcuffed, because I don’t know what I need to try hard at. I’ve got some serious soul searching to do about who I am and what I want to do in life. Geez, I’m going to have to get outta bed for the next 30 years, and I really want to jump out every morning and do something I love. But how do I find out my true passions in life?
I was talking to an old high school buddy, Terry, a cat who had a terrible time with school. Poor guy couldn’t bluff his way through Hamlet, so when teach asked for a 3-page paper, he totally folded his cards. He burrowed an essay from the Internet and was caught. He failed the course. He always wanted to be a firefighter, and thought he’d never need to write a 3-page essay again, and just didn’t see the point. Turns out after high school and he was into a second year of training in firefighters school and they asked him for – you guessed it – a 3 page paper about something to do with fires. He was in a panic. I told him I’d help him bluff his way through it, even though I wasn’t a genius with essays myself. What’s the point of this story? Mmmmmm. Give me a second. Oh yeah, maybe school does offer something relevant after all. But we just don’t see it at the time.
Hey, if you have to do something, you may as well give it your all. Terry needed to know why we write papers in high school. He needed to know writing essays would come in handy some day. . "If only I had known about the importance of this skill way back when..." doesn't cut it. I really need to unlearn those bad high school habits.
BTW, Terry got a C on the firefighting paper, one of the best marks I.... err.... he ever got.
Try not. Do or do not. There is no try. Smart little critter, that Yoda.