Learning from the Past

How many of us really learn from the past? How many of us really learn from the mistakes of others or even our own?

When you were younger, your parents and elders often gave you heartfelt and well meant advice and nine times out of ten you disregarded what you were told and went your own way and nine times out of ten found you in a real pickle because you didn't listen to the learned wisdom of those that had already been in the same spot you were in.

Hindsight truly is 20/20. How often have you looked back and thought, "If I only knew then what I know now!" and it is very true. You could have saved yourself a lot of hard lessons in your life up until this point by simply listening, but what would you have learned. It goes back to an old tried and true adage that goes something along the lines of, "A wise man doesn't stand in the way of a lesson being learned" and that basically means to let someone take a light knock from life that you can clearly see coming with experience, but be there to keep them from experiencing the hard knocks if you can avoid it. Children must fall on their bottoms more than once when they are learning to walk and through doing so learn balance. You protect them from obvious dangers such as sharp corners on tables and furniture but you let them fall on their bottoms and get up again as they learn to walk and then run.

The same principle can be applied to watching someone you know learning a life lesson - give them well meant advice and if they don't heed it - just make sure you're there to help them up when they fall on their bottoms and help them learn to walk and then run - they'll thank you for it later!
 posted by Friends of Leah