Yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks!
There’s one hobby I’ve always had. Reading. Ever since I learned to read one of my favorite places was the library. At school you could only check out two books at a time and it was only once a week that you got to go. I always ended reading my books quickly and would end up being frustrated that I couldn’t go back sooner.
We moved from a small town in Wisconsin to Mpls when I was 14. One of the only things I could afford to do at the time was go to the library downtown. Imagine my delight when I brought my 2 books up to the counter and the librarian asked me if that was all I was getting.
“How many can I get?” I asked.
“As many as you like,” she replied.
“How soon are they due?”
“Three weeks from today.”
Did I seriously hear her right?
As many books as I could read in 3 weeks?
Or at least as many as I could carry on the bus ride home.
My brain was on fire! For whatever weird reason I remember getting 18 books. As I nervously approached the counter with my new found bounty I was positive she would back pedal and correct herself, limiting my haul to something more manageable.
She didn’t. She did ask if I really thought I could read them all in three weeks, but she didn’t discourage me from taking them home.
I was back in two weeks! I do confess that I didn’t read 2 of the books I took home. I found out that you can indeed read too many Tarzan books! Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote over 100 Tarzan books but after the first 11 they basically felt like you were rereading the same thing over and over.
I loved the library for 2 reasons. 1) They are free. 2) If you made a poor choice you’re not mad because you didn’t pay for it.
When I would go to a library I felt like I had won the lottery. So much free knowledge in the world, just sitting there for the taking! Why weren’t more people excited about this? And to think, this kid would eventually get the internet!
When my kids would ask me what people did before the internet I would say,
“We always had the internet….it was just called a library!”
The point is, you are never too old to learn something new. You’re never to old to pick up a hobby. You just have to be curious!
-Gipson-