If you're a Gen-X'er (and were a anime nerd) you'll remember watching Battle of the Planets. There was an episode where one of the G-Force members was just flooded in paper work, practically swimming in it doing some research on something Spectra... Pee Wee had a clip board in his hand and a pencil behind his ear, the lab coat on... the whole works. I can picture LT in midst of the same mess doing her research, clipboard, pencil behind the ear, lab coat and all...You see... my Sweet is what I call a Research Junkie. She obsesses on getting all the info she can on a particular subject/object and just digs and digs and digs! Sometimes I don't know if she is trying to talk herself out of getting something, or just trying convince herself she needs it. By the time she's done, LT is very knowledgeable on the subject/object of her obsession. I admire her very much for this.
Must be genetics. Her Dad used to be the same way. He would read about a subject for a while, then one day he's tying flys, all self-taught. Again some may say, "So... nothing new, hundreds of people do it everyday". True, but the fact that someone will dedicate time to anything, trying to better themselves... this is where the admiration begins for me.
It takes self-discipline, patience - with yourself and those around you - intelligence and wisdom to learn something on your own. Many of us may have the intelligence, but not the patience or the wisdom to see it through. I start off OK, but then get impatient and just try to do it MY way. I'm a Gen-X'er, a member of the MY-WAY Generation... so it makes perfect sense to me, until I get stuck and have no idea how I arrived to where I am, let alone where to go next.
Luckily, the boy has acquired a little of both of us. He'll start off all teen-like, "I know everything and this will be a cinch to master, so you older feeble-minded ones stand aside", then when he realizes that he is way over his head (takes a while, but eventually he does get there), he starts being a little more methodological about his quest to learn how to master his subject/object of obsession. I'm hoping in time he will mature and see that the "tried and true" way is a heck of a lot easier then the "my-way"method...Do you still battle with that notion? I know I still do... Maybe one of these days I'll finally be mature enough, then again, maybe not, 'cause the "tried and true" may be all fine and good, but MY WAY is better... Just another one of those "Do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do" things that used to irritate the living *%#$ out of me when I was a child, and now, I get to do it to my kids. And so the Cycle of Life goes on, young Simba...
So... yeah ;Þ
