Today I was reading Shipwrecked in South Carolina’s “Already Broken.” I’d been thinking about what it means to be open before, but James got me focused again. Openness is a concept which is not expressed much in education, at least I don’t remember my teachers ever directly speaking about the necessity of an open mind, but in fact there can be no learning without it. We are surrounded by openness and upon reflection it doesn’t take much thought to realize that without openness nothing could really exist. A milk glass would be of no use without an opening to hold the milk. A home would have no value without empty spaces in which to live. Autos, trains, planes all require openings and open space for utility. Walls and bulkheads are useful too, but it is the openings and openness which invite us in.
Last week one of my Facebook friends posted a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Every wall is a door.” I hadn’t thought of that at all but a simple quote and an open mind helps me to see that where I might have turned back is actually an invitation to move forward.