Lifelong Learning

Mr. Hove' was the eighth grade teacher at our mission school and also the choir director. I remember his graduation speech one year, admonishing the students to continue to pursue lifelong learning even though they were graduating from their formal education. Mr. Hove' had a booming voice and a larger than life presence. He kept emphasizing in his heavy African brogue, "Learning ends in the grrrrave!" (Emphasis on rolling the r, :)

So, I was thinking of Mr. Hove' recently when I took up water color painting and sketching. I probably will never be that good, taking up a new skill in my fifties, but it's fun! So much fun! I'm almost obsessed with it sometimes, staying up late to get a sketch just right. Then a childlike joy sweeps over me when I start adding the water color. I can be transported for hours, focused on a landscape, not thinking of much of anything else. It's wonderful! And I'm kind of proud of myself for learning something new.

Mr. Hove' and his sweet wife were later poisoned during the revolutionary war in that beautiful African country. But your influence did not end in the grave Mr. Hove'!

"Learning ends in the grrrrave!"

Here's to lifelong learning!