I’ve heard it said that each of us is like an empty chalkboard, waiting to be filled up. We must be taught and instructed and trained throughout our lifetime to do just about everything. We depend on others, whether parents or teachers or friends or mentors or authors—even others who are perhaps unqualified or unwitting—to scrawl their wisdom onto our hearts and minds.
But then, of course, we accidentally brush our shoulders against the board, smearing the chalk. Life has a way of blurring sections into a big smudgy mess. Or someone walks by and intentionally drags their mischievous hand across it as they pass, like a punk middle schooler.
And so, we forget. Not for lack of intelligence or of trying, but just because our memories are as delicate as chalk dust. Even for the sharpest of us. We are forgetful creatures. Recalling the right thing at the right time is not always a matter of skill or smarts. Sometimes we need reminders. And especially for those of us keen on being intellectual, perhaps we often need more reminding than learning.
“Most people don’t need to be taught, they only need to be reminded.”
C.S. Lewis
