Experiential

Pondering how we learn - some of us learn by rote, some of us by example, and some of us by experience - is there any advantage to one over the other? Well, my bias is toward experiential learning - why, because it's the most personal of them. Let's plug an example in - let's use the notion of love - by rote, one would learn that love is an emotion expressed toward a person or object to which one is attached - by example, one could use the relationship in literature of Romeo and Juliet - by experience, one could refer to a parental, partner, or friend relationship. To have the full understanding of a concept, I believe one has to have the experience to its fullest. That means throwing oneself fully into the experience to learn the good, the bad, and the muddy middle.

I use love as the example because it is one side of the powerful emotional coin - the other side being hate, and I don't want to explore that just yet....To understand, comprehend, and appreciate the experience of love, one has to be willing to be vulnerable, to be seen by another person, to be rejected, to be judged, to be appreciated and cherished. It is only in the reflection of another with whom this vulnerability is allowed can this emotion be understood. Love is a many splendid thing but it is usually accompanied with jealousy, self-doubt, and preconceived notions. Yay!