Leslie's posts Leslie on 21 Feb 2007 07:24 pm
Learning New Skills, New Things, New Habits of Mind
…and can one really teach an old dog new tricks? Kerch has been trying to get me to learn how to actually insert my own signature into these posts. Several e-mails have been involved. For reasons that are not clear to me, I am unable to do this. This is especially perplexing because I really am generally OK with computer skills. Her latest e-mail to me on this topic says:
”i just uploaded your signature into a place so you can see it when you are writting in the blog..
there’s a tab.. view all.
and then click on something.. see what happens.”
To which I can only say….What tab?
Kerch is Very Good at this. She even writes code!
What do you do when stumbling over something that is so obvious to someone else, and then you feel so incredibly stupid when you can’t do it?
This happened to me when I tried to learn to knit. Decades ago, my mother tried to teach me. “How To” articles from Woman’s Day/Family Circle magazines were also involved. Still, I never learned to knit. Crocheting, on the other hand, was something that I could always do - and I still do. But I gave up attempting to knit 35 years ago.
About 5 years ago, I took a pottery class. I had always wanted to be able to work on a potters wheel and make my own pottery. I tried - I really did. Like knitting, I have no aptitude or affinity for making pottery. None.
I really do know how to do a lot of things, and I have been generally successful in learning new skills. Still, the failures are always “front of mind”, aren’t they?
The failures make better stories.
What’s next to conquer? Change requires risk-taking, and a willingness to fail, to look foolish if necessary. To be covered in potter’s dust and have no bowl to show for it.
(If you see my actual signature here, it’s because Kerch put it here. Thanks!)