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A badger is when you learn most

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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Friday, 23 Nov 2012, 17:55

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Fig.q. It might have been a bad year for badger's but that's not the point.

BBC Radio 4's Bad Year for Gardener's

Thick with cold and in the car unwillingly I wondered why a badger is when you learn most. I'd just turned the radio on so hadn't the context. In a few moments I had it.

It is true, that you learn from disaster, from economic downturn, from making ends meat ... from a death in the family, from making mistakes. Indeed, in many things you learn a good deal in a bad year.

I had a bad year in 1985. The love of my life and I were parting company. I was young. I let it fester. This has been a bad year - my mum year. I'll think of 2012 therefore as the year of the Badger. At least this will put a smile on my face.

Do we really learn from our mistakes?

It rather suggests that our personalities are like plasticine rather than alabaster - that we can and do with ease adjust to the circumstances.

 

 

 

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Hi Jonathan

It's amazing what we can cope with, and I agree that we can learn a lot from the tough things life throws at us.  We can also train our minds to respond in ways that help us move on, but I guess, like all things, some people have to work harder than others at gaining and using the tools needed for this.  Some life experiences I feel it must be impossible to come to terms with.  I know someone whose 17 year old son was murdered in an unprovoked attack.  I can't even begin to understand what she must go through on a daily basis.

Anyway, Jonathan, I think your year of the badger sounds nice.  I liked your self-portraits by the way.  You've either inherited your mum's gift or she taught you well, but probably a nice mix of both.  Hold on to your precious memories of her.

Take care,

Sue