OCCASION

July 29th, 2018

Present someone with the occasion, and what happens? 

Throwing out an interesting and contentious topic into just about any group of people will GENERATE the occasion for just about any and all to jostle and joust against one another in order to gain the floor to share their wisdom, their logic, their common sense, their infallible feeling . . . and perhaps first and foremost their ability to out-argue and grasp at some elusive sense of ‘winning’.

What do these people do without the occasion to jury and joust?

Most often, we remain passive.  The most active thing we do is to look for passive activities. 

(Thank you Facebook Feed, Reddit, and Instagram)

Only with the right occasion do we seem naturally impelled to become active.  Forced by work, goaded by a social group, instructed by school.

Indeed, we may have years of poorly structured, instructive schooling to thank for this built-in passivity. 

Once school has ended, how many of us simply wait?  Wait for the next occasion.  When something is asked of us.

Some go back to school.  Is it in part so that we can again have the assignment?  So we can be handed the occasion to actually do something.    The backbone of this decision is about the ‘credential’ that lies at the end of additional schooling.  The legitimacy that enables us to get an interview and say,

“I’m legit, I did this stuff, when certified people asked me to.”

Is it more impressive or less impressive to go through the schooling on one’s own, say via online courses and independent study?

I went to school.  I have this piece of paper.

Or.

I taught myself.  I figured it out.

Indeed the first is supposed to give us the later.  But school misses the most important step.  It fails to teach the near infinite malleability of the moment.  That during any given moment while watching the fourth season of a show, we can turn the T.V. off, put away the tub of ice cream, and go find something interesting and difficult to delve into.

The years of occasions that school offers us... so that we may rise up to the occasion… always fails to imbue us with a more important lesson:

We must craft our own occasion. 

And then rise to it.

This episode referenced Episode 93: The Generator, if you’d like to fully understand the reference, please check out that episode next.