Connections, Broadening, and Growth

So I just finished reading a blog post by someone else that was really boring and sucked in virtually every way that a few paragraphs of rambling prose can suck. It was so awful, that I figured ANYTHING I wrote down would be better and more awesome than the drivel that I have just been forced (by myself) to read.

That being said, here we are! Welcome to some drivel by NJ.

So I've reached that point in my new experience where I am starting to make connections. Let me clarify. When I start something completely new, I tend to suck at it. At one time, I thought this was because I was lazy (e.g. freshman year of high school, freshman year of college, my first year at Montana State), but the fact that my worst grades always seem to coincide with my first years in an entirely new environment lead me to believe that maybe something else is happen.

This thought occurred to me a few weeks ago. I figured I'd mention the oddity to my mom. The response I got was, at least a little, unexpected.

She has the same problems! And my mom may be a lot of things, but lazy sho' ain't one of'm. Ring another one up for nature, please (as opposed to nurture, that is)!

Anyway, let me return to what I was saying. I've reached that point in my experience in which I am starting to make connections. In class, the professor might state some facts and my brain tries to use previous learnings to guess at the applicable law. I instantly turn to contracts in property class. I contemplate professional responsibility in business associations. All those things I had a tenuous grasp on only a few months before (and, judging by my grades in December, only a few weeks before) are suddenly starting to spring to life.

It's an exciting feeling. So I have a question for everyone. Does anyone else recognize this experience? In your own lives, have you had a transitory period in which you went from a know-nothing to a know-it-all? Have you ever lamented that you only start to really figure out the fundamentals of a topic after you've conceptualized the big picture, yet you cannot conceptualize the big picture until you've figured out the fundamentals?

That's just a thought of mine.

And one more thing...

THE IPHONE!!!

Just kidding. Anyone else see one of those Apple press conferences? They just aren't as impressive as I feel led to believe.

Seriously, though, it's time for another HTGBWET, specifically number 287. Today's topic: Try not to cut corners.

The previous statement actually makes sense, if you give it a chance. Think of it like being a natural. Some people just sort of know. Some people just know that men and women are really pretty much the same. Some people know that everyone is nervous and uncomfortable. Some people know that irritable expressions on the faces of the opposite sex usually indicate that they are irritated with THEMSELVES. Some people know that everyone... EVERYONE... sees him or herself as the actor, rather than the character in the play that is life and love, and we all wish we knew the lines.


Some people, without ever even thinking about it, know that these things are true. Guys call them assholes. Women call them bitches. Really, it's all the same. These are the people who are born knowing.

St. Thomas Aquinas said that a person's faith lacks depth, until it has been through trials and tribulations, doubt and uncertainty. (Or maybe it was Buck Minster Fuller. I forget now.) The point is that these people will never have a problem getting a date, and that's really too bad, because these people will never need to grow and will always lack the depth that goes beyond the skin and beyond the suave.

Admittedly, some of us do need to grow, and we never do make it beyond the skin, but at least we're trying. At least an awareness exists.

And in that awareness, in that growth, in that gradual, broadening understanding do we become whole people.