Spring cleaning closed the Abbotsford Salvation Army today [Wednesday May 25/16].

With the Meal Centre behind closed, locked doors, the meal became bagged lunches served at the front door.

Unfortunately for some, lunch service was stopped, the remaining bagged lunches given away and the doors locked before 1:15 PM.

Those unfortunate enough to arrive between the doors being locked and the well established 1:15 PM weekday meal service cut-off deadline were SOL.

Fortunately for me a) it was Whopper Wednesday, b) I had collected enough empty cans and bottles to cover the $3.15 cost of a Burger King Whopper and c) enough money remained that I could cross to Tim Horton`s and feed my caffeine addiction.

Carrying my Whopper, I grabbed a copy of the Coffee News to peruse and relax with as I savoured the rare treat of a Whopper.

The Coffee News ad for the Abbotsford Learning Plus Society caught my eye and I found myself considering the statement: `To Live is to Learn, To Learn is to Grow`.

Sitting down in Tim Horton`s, I sip my caffeine fix and type away at my laptop setting down my thoughts on Life, Learning and Growth.

Lamentably, Life is like growing up – while you cannot avoid growing old you do not have to grow up, mature and become a responsible adult, you can choose to remain immature, selfish and irresponsible.

In the same manner, while you cannot avoid aging as you live Life, you can avoid learning anything, thereby avoiding the risk of changing and thus remain in conformity with the beliefs and group think of fellow Canadian herd members.

I suspect that it’s the propensity of human beings to avoid learning and its associated activity thinking that had Ford founder Henry Ford observing: “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.”

In cogitating upon “To Learn is to Grow” I found myself considering that a person with an ideology or rigid, fixed beliefs could find facts to support their ideology or beliefs. Could you learn but not grow?

Hmm?  Learn: 1) to acquire knowledge of or skill in by study, instruction or experience; 2) to become informed of or acquainted with; ascertain.

After an internal debate and exchange of thoughts the consensus was that knowledge of, skill in, informed of, acquainted with and ascertain all required more than simply mining facts to support one’s ideology or beliefs.

In order to truly learn about something – to determine the why, what, where, who and how of something – one has to be willing to find facts that show what you believe is wrong and require you to change your mind – or, where the need for illusion is deep, to invest a great deal of intelligence in ignorance.

The deep need for illusion, for ignorance is not confined to individuals but is a driving need afflicting Canadian society, institutions, media, business and government.

Our deep need to not learn in order to preserve our illusions and ignorance leaves us prey to the consequences of that refusal to learn; consequences expressed so well by Mark Twain as “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It is what we know for sure that just ain’t so.’

People ‘know’ that Darwin and evolution is all about ‘the survival of the fittest’.

In Darwin’s ‘On the Origin of Species” Darwin speaks of the ability to change, to adapt to changing conditions, as the process that drives evolution; survival was not a matter of fittest but of the ability to change.

In the past significant changes spanned generations. The rate – and breadth – of change in the world today has never been seen before and the rate – and breadth – of change continues to accelerate..

Billion dollar industries are born, flourish and go the way of buggy whip makers in decades [Blockbuster].

Failure to change and adapt to the change taking place may not result in our physical extinction, but it has made our society much meaner. Not changing and adapting has also resulted in a declining standard of living in Canada; a decline that will continue unless we adapt to the changed world economy.

To merely survive, Canada and Canadians must change.

To thrive and prosper demands that Canada and Canadians not only embrace change, but that we begin to embody, anticipate and drive change.

Canadians must make Thinking, Learning and Growing their way of Life.