and what of experiences? experiences are how we relate to each
other. I work and I work in a really shitty job/company/industry.
If you work in a shitty job/company/industry, you can relate to
me and my shitty job. Humans use experiences to relate to each
other. I am married and have been for 22 years. Those who have
been married for a long time can relate to that fact. We have
a commonality in the length of our marriage. We share that
experience and thus we can relate to each other. Before I was
married and had a child, I thought, I believed that I knew
all the information needed to be married and to be a father.
I was wrong. The only experience for being a father is being
a father and the only experience for being married is to be married.
I lack the experience to be a doctor or to be a surgeon. Doctors
and surgeons practice, train, experience being doctors and surgeons
for years before they actually become doctors and surgeons.
This experience is invaluable to them to learn, to experience being
doctors and surgeons. They have the specific skill set needed to
become doctors and surgeons.
I had spinal surgery and the surgeon was considered one of the
best spinal surgeons west of the Mississippi, but he had no and
I mean no personality of any kind. He had the
worst bedside manner of any doctor I have ever met, but he was
a great surgeon and I decided to use him. My workmen comp doctor
was in the surgery to watch and he told me that this doctor was
a very skilled and accomplished surgeon. Just no bedside manner.
so which skill do I value? the fact he was a great surgeon or
the fact he had no bedside manner of any kind?
the fact I am able to move today tells me, that given
the choice again, I would pick a great surgeon
over having a good bedside manner. That is the skill set
that was necessary for me to find in a surgeon.
So this idea of having a skill set can be manifest in several
different ways. For example, what skill set do I need to
become a valued member of society? What skill set would I
need to become a better human being? What skill set would I
need to become president of the United States?
Experience tells us what skills set is necessary to accomplish
a certain goal. For example, let us say, I want to climb
Mt. Everest. I would need to get the skill needed to climb
Everest and I would need people around me with the skill sets
to get me to and from Everest. I cannot accomplish climbing
MT. Everest by myself for I lack the necessary skill set to accomplish
that feat. I no longer have the physical skills or tools to
to make that journey. I did once, a very long time ago, but not now.
So it is more then just understanding the skill set needed to accomplish
some task, but the understanding or being realistic enough to know
if I have or might have the skill set to accomplish something.
I play chess but I am not very good, but I keep trying.
Realistically, I will never become a grandmaster or win
the world championship at chess but I can try to become
the best player I can possibly be and that is a realistic goal
for me to achieve. We can only become who we are by
becoming realistic about who we are and what is possible for us.
Experience can teach us about what is possible and what is
impossible for us to reach. I cannot fly by flapping my arms
really fast. I am realistic about what I can accomplish
physically because of my age. I don’t believe I can ever
run a marathon ever again but I can run, maybe a mile or two.
I can work at being the best possible person, runner, athlete
or thinker that I can be, given a realistic understanding
of what is now possible for me.
Experience gives us our realistic possibilities for some
doing or actions we might take. But I have a greater
possibilities for, a realistic understanding for what my mind
can do such as philosophy and the study of history
and other such mental activities. I am not as limited
in mental activities as I am in physical activities.
My mind still functions and works at a high level
whereas my body does not. So I go with my current strength which
is mentally, not physically.
Experience can give us general guidelines of what is possible
and what is not really possible. And those older folks whose
days of running marathons are over, can relate to my issue
and those young folks who can still run marathons cannot.
This understanding that experience gives us a knowledge of
our skill set and what is possible and what is not possible
given our current skill set. I cannot run marathons but
I can be president of the United States or I can be a dam
good philosopher or I can relate what is left of my physical skill
set with others who are old like me.
I can still walk many miles whereas because of her declining
physical nature, my mom cannot walk more then a few hundred feet
and she knows it because her experience has given her an understanding
of her physical possibilities and my experience has given me
an understanding of my physical possibilities.
Experience is a tool to understand what is possible and
what is not possible. So what is still possible for you
and what is impossible for you given your current skill set.
This is the value of experience.
Kropotkin