Learning

On Monday I was in London to attend Bill's funeral- Mike's uncle.  Bill had a deep booming voice that would capture your attention.  His eyes would twinkle with enthusiasm when he talked about some of his passions- anything about his kids Matt and Kathryn, his wife Elizabeth (Betty) and their travels, the nuances of sport technique (mostly football and golf, I think), a good red wine, technical stuff (his cool new camera, super huge awesome TV), as well as his career dedicated to motivating kids and teachers to be the best learners they could be.  Visits with Bill was part of family time at the Nault's house- or more specifically, in their kitchen, sharing many Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.

Mike and Bill had a lot in common.  They both had so much enthusiasm for many many things in life.  I knew Bill from family time, not in his career life.  But what came through to me, even in little chats (interrupted repeatedly by kids) was the premium he put on learning.  As the superintendent of the Thames Valley District School Board,  he was serious about this stuff.   Mike was pretty serious about learning too-- most clearly through his fascination with the area of medicine he found most intellectually challenging.  However, neither Bill nor Mike were particularly serious guys...

Bill also became Mike's own personal football coach, which intertwined their mutual interest of football and learning.  This was years ago, when Bill lived with the Nault family temporarily while attending U of T and Mike was finishing up at high school.  Mike was in the midst of his all-consuming love of football at the time (as I understand it) and Bill was there to watch, comment, dissect, review, analyze, critique before, during and after games-- as well as capture some awesome photos of Mike playing football.  Mike loved that attention and interest from Bill-- as well as the photos-- and reminisced often about the special connection they had.

Lucas asked me a few days ago about my 'favourite thing'.  'What do you mean?', I questioned --'Like my favourite food?'.  'No mom.  I mean your favourite thing', he repeated.   Hmmm.  I was a bit stumped here.  We were on our way to gymnastics.  Kid music was playing.  I was trying to remember whether or not I had packed his water.  Did Emily have a snack within arms reach?  Would we have time to get groceries today?  I wasn't prepared to dig deep for a meaningful answer.  'I don't know, Lucas--- what's yours?'

'Learning.' he said.

'Really, your favourite thing is learning?!  That's great Lucas.  Daddy loved to learn and so do I'.

I don't know where he gets this stuff.  I couldn't even make it up if I tried.

So today, I think about Bill and Mike-- and their love of learning.  And I think about Bill's children Matt and Kathryn-- and Lucas and Emily-- and how much they will go on to proudly love and learn some more.