The first response to my blog came via email from a friend who told me that Goya had drawn a portrait of himself as a very old man and titled it Aun Aprendo, meaning “I am still learning.” It hangs in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Goya continued to paint and draw in spite of ill health as he grew old.Growing old chronologically is a given but being open to learning throughout our life leads to a wisdom of the spirit that keeps us young at heart.
Sophocles wrote, "Old age and the passage of time teach all things." I have often wondered if learning is the very purpose of our existence. Life seems to be a series of lessons. Opportunities for learning present themselves. If we fail to learn the lesson, it is uncanny how further opportunities for learning it come along. Once we do learn the lesson, we move on to the next one.
Continuing to learn until "death do us part" from this world is one of the reasons I believe that our souls continue to exist after our physical departure. Why else would we be learning, if not to prepare us for whatever lies ahead?
Thank you for your kind words and encouragement!
ReplyDeleteYes, life is a school for love.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Pru
This Schools Moto is Aun Aprendo and it guides all it does
ReplyDeletehttp://www.besanthill.org/
Nice post!
ReplyDeleteIt is not a portrait of Goya. He was in exile in France with personal and health problems but Moratin, one of the Spanish writers of that time and friend of Goya said "Goya, deaf, old, sick and clumsy, without knowing a single word of French, is so happy and wishing to discover the world" Goya was probably eighty when he draw "aun aprendo"