Study is the renewing of our mind as fasting is to our bodies. The discipline of study is necessary to become a deeper person.
Study is a discipline because it requires energy, persistence, and learnable skills. We love the modern fantasy that we could simply “plug in” and download knowledge and expertise. Perhaps someday data transfer directly into our brains will be feasible. But I’m skeptical that this will generate knowledge and expertise. We already know the act of study, the hard work of absorbing and using information, shapes our neural connections. Study transforms our brain at a cellular level and we benefit from the meta effects of this process.
Study is not just formal schooling, or reading books, or apprenticeship learning a craft. Study is fundamentally about paying attention, making observations, questioning, testing ideas, pulling together threads across time and space, seeking understanding and insights that help one another live better. We certainly pursue what intrigues us and we examine everything that touches our sphere of influence. We study both people we admire and people who disgust us. We study the natural world of creation, and we study what our fellow humans have created. We study the past as we build the future while walking in amazement in the present.
We study ourselves and other people. Self-reflection is a hallmark of being truly human; it is unclear if any other animal in creation studies itself. We’re created as intensely social creatures, so we consciously study other people. There is great wisdom in being able to discern intentions and motivations that drive behaviors, whether conscious or unconscious.
Many of us were required to read one of Shakespeare’s plays in school, likely Romeo and Juliet. Did your eyeballs pass over the page, or did you actually read it? Did you read it well enough to temporarily remember enough to pass a test? Did you read it and ponder it and think about how the story speaks to all kinds of inter-family conflicts? If you read it as a teenager and then in your 40’s, how much more did you recognize and grasp about the patterns of relationships and the angst of love? Only the read-reflect-reread work makes you a deeper person.
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I won’t sugar-coat this for you: Study is about leaning into the old, the new and the difficult to find wisdom. I have friends and colleagues who consider reading old and hard books impossibly difficult. One asked if there is a GetAbstract summary for Plato and Aristotle. (I don’t think he was kidding.)
Here’s good news: Genuine wisdom comes in finite amounts that you can absorb. You can get your head around it because it simultaneously grounds you. You have the time to both absorb wisdom and act upon it. The requirement: shut all the noise off. Connect with deep people, whether dead authors, distant, or in personal touch. Study is an investment to generates rewards over time.
