Oneself
This last week I took a second that turned into about a half hour to watch a couple of ducks that someone had told me were Ruddy ducks, from what I gathered they are pretty hard find. So I walked along the road following the ducks up and down as they swam along the bank of Floating Island Lake. While I was observing them I noticed a few things that ended up being both right and wrong about these ducks. I noticed that the male duck, I assumed it was male due to the colors of the body and the pastel colored beak, would bob it’s head up and down repeatedly making a vibrating clapping sound. I also thought the female was what I latter learned was a coot, due to the coloration of it’s body being almost black and having a different color of beak than the rest of it’s body, white. I also noticed two other ducks that were grayish in color similar to that of the female Mallard ducks, I assumed they were Mallards hanging out with the Ruddy duck. After this experience I went home to further educate myself on the Ruddy duck, I learned that the males beak turns pastel blue only during the mating season and that the bobbing of the head and clapping noise is actually the mating call. And that what I thought were Mallards were actually the female Ruddy ducks following around the males during mating season. In this one experience I educated myself on the Ruddy duck first by observing then by studying. In this day and age most of us are taught by reading or being told about a particular item. Think of how much we could learn by learning the way those who paved the way learned, by experiencing what we desire to know.Others
Amongst all the learning and experiencing that we do there is another vital part to us obtaining knowledge, that is through others. Even Einstein did not teach himself to tie his shoes although latter he might have found a better way to tie them. While I am out exploring in the park I look for the opportunity to find someone who knows more than I do (that is not very hard). This last week there was a man that I do not know the name of but who I have seen around Yellowstone for the last three years, and it did not take me very long to notice that when he was stopped with his scope out he was watching or waiting for a grizzly to show up. When I saw him stopped I pulled over to talk to him and learned that he was watching a grizzly and a cub of the year. When I talked to him and when I had listened to him talk the week before one thing that I started to learn was that everything has a name and I should get to know the names. He pointed out every peak, valley, river, and stream and said what everyone was called, he knew his geography. Another man that I watch for is Rick when I ever I see a yellow Nissan Extera I know that he is around and that wolves are around as well. If you just go and stand by him he will teach you directly and by the things that he says into his recorder. For example when I was around him he told the story of the Silver pack it was named after the alpha female a silver (white) wolf. That with in the last year a new alpha took charge and after the fight let the old alpha remain in the pack (which never happens) and that the two other wolves were still “pups” or wolves that were not old enough to give a name or a number to yet. When we take the time to listen and learn from others our knowledge is increased, and when we become the teachers and teach our knowledge is expounded I believe at least ten fold.There are schools and then there are schools one filled with people and books and the other filled with a vast amount of hypothesis, ideas, and new ways of learning waiting for a vessel to be placed in. The second school I mention is found in both schools, no matter how or what a teacher is, is no excuse for not learning, although for myself and others there are better atmospheres to learn in I believe that once that piece of paper is handed to us we have the charge to take it out into the world and really learn and start placing our footprint in life. "I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life his life by a conscious endeavor” (Thoreau).
