Better to Give

Peter's Journal March 4, 2008

I never thought I would discover in my lifetime a friend who could take me to new ideas and insights on every occasion, every encounter, and every conversation.  It is probably how the friends of Albert Einstein felt.  A mind that is active and gifted, constantly being replenished with new thoughts, while retaining a semblance of order with all past knowledge is a rarity indeed.  As we age we lose our ability to retrieve the information stored in our vast repository called our brains, yet those like Einstein, and I dare say John Seeley, can lose vast quantities and still be ahead of the average student or teacher. That was definitely the case with John and me.

I suppose as time goes on I will not be able to tap into the memory bank and retrieve names, current events, and a host of other items important to me now.  That is ok if my reservoir continues to be filled up.  My brain is like a reservoir – much constantly going out, but thankfully always being filled by that upstream flow; if however, I am wise and keep the flue open.   Learning is not for the young exclusively and John taught me how important keeping that flow of knowledge coming really is as we age.  An aside:  I now understand why my father did cross word puzzle late into his eighties.  He was a whiz and I marveled that an 88 year old man could finish those darn things as quickly as he did, much less at all.)

Where the analogy really makes sense is when this is laid before the words of Albert Einstein:  “The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.”    John Seeley was able to give because he allowed others to fill him up.  Whether sitting and listening to his grandson, or the caregivers sing karaoke in their native tongue, as he did later in life, or debating the likes of Margaret Mead  as he did when he was younger, John had an uncanny ability of what I call ‘sponging’ – that is soaking up the wisdom, joy, pleasure, pain, sorrow, trivia etc. of others.

Have you ever used a natural sponge to soak up a spilled glass of milk?  It is fascinating to watch this natural wonder of nature make a mess disappear in a second.  Ability to be sponge like is not perhaps something that comes readily to mind when thinking about the likes of Einstein or Seeley, but I bet that they never ever lost that ability to take in information, process and then store it forever.  This ability and it can be learned to a certain extent, made John able to relate to and dialogue with anyone regardless of their estate, intellectual capacity, or age.  He listened and learned from all and then retained the information so as to be able to inform his next encounter or conversation.  A rare gift indeed.  This ability allowed John to give to everyone.