Connected

The more I learn, the more convinced I am that there are "fibers" of connectedness between us that serve to aid and abet our spiritual, physical, intellectual, and emotional health.  (Yes, I know that sounds a little weird.)

Never in history has it been easier to "connect" with others, via the internet and its subsidiary tools.  And, of course, phone communications are more robust and varied than they have ever been.

As we learn and grow, we continually develop and add to a network of informed and inspiring "others," who contribute to our growth in myriad ways.  They are not always folks who think like us, nor do they always agree with us.  However, their thinking and ways of being "push" our own thinking and ways of being.  

Thus, we grow, we learn, we get better.

Since it is so easy to connect with others in our current world, we have opportunity like no generation before us to activate that learning network, to reach out to those interesting or influential others, to leverage their thinking, to study their habits.  All of which can be used to affect our own growth and development.

And, as is always the case with authentic learning, the impact on the learner and the learnee morphs into a relationship of reciprocal benefit (rather than a one-gives-and-the-other-gets sort of dynamic).

This era of hyper-connectedness and ultra-accessibility affords us the unique opportunity to advance our own learning in ways and at speeds that are simply mind-boggling.

One of my favorite songs (to reinforce this idea):  "Connected," by Eric Bibb.