Every now and then I do a search on one of those big web engines to see how many eternal students there are out there. The results show there to be quite a few. There’s more than one blogger who claims to be “THE Eternal Student” (I myself only claim to be “AN Eternal Student”; but then again, humility is the virtue that dare not speak its name, so I’m not being humble here). And there are a whole lot of other folk who refer to themselves in a less formal manner as eternal students (including someone on suicidegirls.com, a porno site disguised as a blog; I’m sure all you guys are now punching that URL into your browsers). I’m glad that the eternal student idea is popular, even in the darker corners of cyberspace.
Most of the “eternal students” out there on the web are young grad students who are probably being ribbed by their career-conscious friends for staying in school so long. Eventually, I’m sure they will all graduate and start their professional careers with business or a university or the government, and their need for witty self-defensiveness will vanish. Then there are other folk like me who are well into their working lives, but doggedly hold on to their intellectual curiosity despite the fact that it does your career absolutely no good. In the aggressive world that we live in, clever and slick do much better than wise and understanding. It’s not what you know, it’s how you spin it and distort it, so as to bring in the bucks. Don’t fall in love with the truth if you want to live a comfortable, decent life on this planet.
Still, there are people who get through a typical career of spinning and distorting without losing their desire to cuddle up with the truth before they die. Here in the US, about the best you can do is to buy some DVD lectures from Great Courses. Forget about going back to college, because that’s become a place for instructing the young in the art of spinning and distorting (or performing research funded by the military and business – i.e., more spinning and distorting). But in Asia, they’re now setting up university-like places just for old fogies, places where there might be more time to explore truth and wisdom. I just saw an article about “universities for the elderly” on the web site belonging to the International Pan-Pacific South East Asia Women’s Association, or PPSEAWA for short.
PPSEAWA is a horrible acronym, but the organization itself seems quite worth while. It’s one of those international non-profit things with ties to the United Nations, having lofty goals like “promoting peace through understanding and friendship.” Well, at least PPSEAWA has a nice web site, with lots of valuable information and positive messages. So, it’s not surprising that PPSEAWA became interested in places where “eternal students” can go in their old age. It’s too bad that all of these “old schools” are in Asia. Maybe there is something to the myth that Asians possess greater wisdom than we westerners do, especially with regard to the aged. I certainly hope that the elderly university movement finds its way to the States. For now, you can check out this article about “true eternal students” at www.ppseawa.org/Bulletin/99Aug/students.html.