New Year Resolution: Learn Something New

In Washington Post's Business section for today, New Year's day, Amy Joyce has a beautifully written article, intended for readers with office jobs, on "Some Promises You Should Keep;" it leads off with Learn something new. This is clearly excellent advice, even to retirees such as myself. Indeed, Chinese Americans, as a group, are receptive to learning -- regardless of setting, regardless of age. I recall a saying, from a book in three-word groupings intended for school children in China from age 3 onward: "Learn till old-age; learning is inexhaustible." (my rendition, intended to mimic the 3-word groupings) In front of my monitor at which I am typing this musing, I have taped a clipping (with words in calligraphic form), from a Chinese-language newspaper published in major cities around the world (including NYC, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in USA), of an 8-word saying attributed to Ha'n Yin, a scholar of the H`an dynasty (206 BCE - 23 CE): "Learning has no end; one stops when encased [in a coffin]." Perhaps it is not good omen to talk about being encased in a coffin on New Year's day, but it reflects my sentiment perfectly, regardless of the occasion.
Posted at 1:50 pm, Sunday, January 1, 2006