The end of August makes me think of learning. You get trained as a young person that the end of August means back to school. In college the start dates differ but the season is the same. For those of us who are not currently in school, there is no reason why we can not use our free resources and learn something new.

There is no reason to wait for a season to learn something new. I think that the secret of aging successfully will prove to be learning something new . The current thinking is that we should exercise our brains. One of the best ways to exercise your brain is to learn.

If I learn how to learn( no matter the subject) than I will be able to prepare for learning, I will have my materials and I can brush up on the skills I need to use. If I want to learn the piano, I know I will need to work on the health issues of now moving my fingers in an unfamiliar series of movements. Same will be true if I want to learn how to use chopsticks. I will have to pay attention to my finger and hand health.

If I want to learn to speak Hindi, I will need to pay attention to my materials, what paper products will I need to learn the writing?

What audio-visual materials will I need to listen to the spoken language? What other methods can I use to learn this language that is not currently spoken where I am living? Are there movies I can rent in Hindi? Are there native speakers I can meet at a cafe to practice with someone who would gently correct my words and pronounciation? Is there a restaurant where I could go and eat the food most often consumed where they speak Hindi? Which textbooks am I going to use to learn this language? Where do they teach Hindi in a classroom? What level is the instruction? Who are the other students?

I think learning is an exciting thing to do. We get transformed and we don’t even feel it usually. Maybe it’s learning how to use email on our computers. It is difficult until one day we receive an email and respond with no difficulty. Or maybe we are able to open the attached photographs and send them along to another family member without asking for help. Our learning successes are usually more quiet than our failures or our questions.

Till the season, go out and learn something new. Of course I would say start at your local public library. It’s free to take out the books, dvds or language discs. You can learn how to cook like Julia Child, you can learn to play the guitar, speak Russian or knot a Persian rug. The Public Library these days contains the infinitude of the possible - learn how to use it.