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Originally Posted by Michael Chui  I don't feel this. This is why I'm not taking on all comers. For instance, I've been extremely skeptical of my own ability to teach a class, so I'm very hesitant about applying to Teach for America, because I'm not convinced I could handle it.
Happens every day. But I see no reason to magnify and dramatize the enormity of life's difficulties such that I can gain nothing from experiencing them. I'd rather choose to learn, rather than choose to become a blubbering idiot crying for mommy.
You choose your reaction to what life throws at you, whether it be nasty or nice.
Terrible things happen daily, hourly. And yet, nothing is so monstrous as to be incomprehensible. It was difficult, thousands of years ago, to understand why storms would boil out of the desert and flood the hot, dry region with lightning and water; but we've begun to understand why now. Why do the stars' position remain fixed in the sky? Why do the clouds glow with an eerie, yet beautiful, color in that short time before dusk? Why do people kill one another? Why do people stand by when others are being abused and tortured? Why do beaten wives go back to their husbands? Why do children bully one another? Why do we torture and humiliate others? Why do we process and systematize a genocide? Why do former neighbors take up machetes and slice us to pieces? Why do we rape, pillage, plunder, nuke?
It can be understood. It is being understood. And the process of understanding is what education is. |
Thanks for the Education lesson, but all I was after was a simple answer to my original question, where is the fun in having an overwhelming, horrific experience?
I am not talking about the 'post-match analysis/reaction'. I am talking about the moment of impact and the incurring of pain. You said that you may be able to repel attackers, in the street attack example. Well, that would not have been an overwhelming experience then, would it?
OK, let's up the ante a bit: you are attacked by 50 armed thugs who leave you with your head kicked in, your teeth kicked out, choking to death on your own blood, in excruciating agony, while your children are tortured to death in front of you (sorry for being so graphic ).
I repeat : where, exactly would the F-U-N be in that?
Are you seriously saying you would welcome such an experience?
Your exact words were:
When we get bored, we want some fun in our lives. Fun manifests as a learning experience. And if you already control it, you aren't going to learn from it. Thus, the experience must be something you don't control, even if you do control it.
And on your following post:
It doesn't have to be a nice experience for it to be an educational one. I would personally welcome such an experience, because I have no idea whether or not I could actually handle it.