Lent: Education

This is the final week of the Lenten “Get ready, get set” calendar (hmmm, wonder why its only four weeks?? --- Lent is longer than that.  Maybe this really is Lent-Lite??)  I’ll still continue my preparation for Easter, both physical and mental/spiritual --- but without the help of the calendar. 

This week the calendar focuses us on thinking about education.  It pointed out that over a billion people entered the 21^st Century unable to simply sign their names – that’s a very minimal measure of literacy!!  These folks have never read a book, have never perused a blog, never heard of Shakespeare, Dante, Edith Wharton or even Twilight (another fairly low measure of literacy).  What this means, is that they don’t have access to a way to make their lives better. 

Think about it.  You and I have access to a world of information and knowledge.  We can learn to do virtually anything.  We can audit classes at MIT (really, you didn’t know that?? Click here --- its free --- really).  We can learn to build furniture (see Ana’s blog here) or cook (I’m not giving you links on this one – there are too many) or anything else we want to learn.

For those of us who ride “on the coattails” this is what gives us the power to make our lives better.  We can access information, instructions, and inspiration for improving the quality of our lives without spending a ton of money.  We can learn the things our mothers never taught us (like how to clean a shower curtain or how to manage a budget or whatever). 

This week, I’m focusing on being grateful for my education – and for the continuing education it affords me.  I’ve learned to read and to write – and to run a computer marginally well --- well enough to make it find what I want on the web, anyway.  That all affords me access to more information than I could possibly process in a lifetime.  That’s something to be grateful for!  Every time I turn on my computer, I’m celebrating my education.  Every time I read ANYTHING --- even the back of the cereal box (yes, that’s a bad habit of mine), I’m celebrating my education.  When I read the words to the hymn I don’t know in church, I’m celebrating my education.  How will you celebrate your education this week?? Get ready, get set --- Easter is coming.