1C
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017
CONTACT US
Laura Sellers | Weekend Editor
lsellers@dailyastorian.com
WEEKEND
BREAK
FOLLOW US
facebook.com/
DailyAstorian
CONFESSIONS of a
NOTORIOUS DILETTANTE
A blue banjo
and the wonder
of learning
By ED HUNT
For The Daily Astorian
W
hen I was a kid, I used
to read encyclopedias.
We had two sets.
The World Book 1975 was my
favorite. It had a few color pho-
tos and it was amazing. Pick a let-
ter off the shelf, open the book up
and learn about something.
I loved learning about things.
I still do.
My parents set the example.
My dad started his career on a
slide rule and fi nally retired just
a few years ago using 3D print-
ers and computer modeling. From
moon boots to grocery checkout
scanners to actual jetpacks for
astronauts, my dad enjoyed a rich
and varied career in the world of
industrial design.
The trick, he always says, is to
never stop learning.
As a newspaper reporter, learn-
ing new things about the world
was part of my job — the abso-
lute best part. As the editor on an
online news site during the dot-
com boom, I taught myself the
nuts and bolts of how to design
and publish using HTML code.
We were trying to create a model
of sustainable success on the web
before anyone thought there was a
future in online journalism.
The dot-com bubble burst, I
changed careers.
Whole new world
Submitted Photo
The writer Ed Hunt plays his open-backed banjo while dog Wendy wanders by.
Ed Hunt/For The Daily Astorian
An open-backed banjo
from a kit.
The most
important
part of
failure is
learning,
and
sometimes
the most
important
part of
learning is
failing .
Ed Hunt
works on his
open-backed
banjo.
Ed Hunt
For The Daily
Astorian
Next came nursing, where I
went from an expert in one fi eld
to a complete novice in another.
I had a whole world of medicine
that I had to understand.
Continuing education is
required for doctors and nurses
because medical science changes
rapidly. If you don’t keep learn-
ing, you aren’t practicing good
medicine.
I try to teach myself how to fi x
things. Often, doing it yourself is
barely worth the time and mate-
rials, but learning how to do it is
where I fi nd the reward.
The internet, of course, makes
all this much easier. When we
bought this old house 24 years
ago we had to learn restoration
and repairs ourselves. I thumbed
through old handy man books that
I picked up at thrift stores to teach
myself the basics of getting an old
house livable.
My motto is: “T here is noth-
ing I don’t know how to do, only
things I haven’t learned yet.”
I am a notorious dilettante. I’ve
taken fl ying lessons and classes in
wood carving. Sometimes I fi nd a
new skill or area is just not for me.
Often I just fail.
A couple of years ago, I bought
a bass guitar and tried to teach
myself how to play. I’d picked
bass because I played trombone
in school. I fi gured I’d try bass
because I could still sort of read
the bass clef. It didn’t work.
Learning from failure
The most important part of
failure is learning, and sometimes
the most important part of learn-
ing is failing.
This year I swallowed that fail-
ure and am trying something new
— I have always been in love
with the sound of the banjo. Prob-
ably a side effect of watching too
much “Hee Haw” when I was a
kid. I knew nothing about it other
than I liked the sound. The open
backed banjo is a perfect accom-
paniment to a rainy day.
With a Christmas gift card I
bought a kit from Backyard Ban-
jos and I’m trying to teach myself
to play.
I had to start by putting the
banjo together myself — stain-
ing the wood and assembling the
components to make the musical
W riter’s
N otebook
instrument. Then I had to learn
how to string it and tune it.
A few books from the library
and an online video lesson plan
and I’m starting to actually make
music.
When the rain forces us inside,
it is a great time to open our
minds. We have libraries at our
fi ngertips, experts a few clicks
away.
The internet is wonderful,
especially if you live in a rural
community. It opens up all sorts
of opportunities to learn new
things. That said, it has its lim-
itations. I’ll try my online lessons
but I may need to resort to in per-
son classes.
Lifelong learning
Thankfully lifelong learning
opportunities abound in our com-
munity. We have two excellent
community colleges and amaz-
ing libraries as well as a host of
opportunities for learning all man-
ner of skills to test and expand our
minds and bodies. I’m dying take
a class at the Barbey Maritime
Center someday where you can
learn everything from building
boats to basket weaving.
For now, however, I am
focused on my little blue banjo.
I think it will be good for me.
Learning to play a musical
instrument at any age seems to
confi rm neurological benefi ts.
Music keeps our brains young,
even if we don’t start taking les-
sons until we are much older.
One researcher studied the
impact of piano lessons on adults
between the ages of 60 and
85. According to an article in
National Geographic, she found
that after six months, those who
had received the lessons showed
gains in memory, verbal fl uency,
information processing, planning
ability and other cognitive func-
tions when compared to a control
group.
“People often shy away from
learning to play a musical instru-
ment at a later age, but it’s defi -
nitely possible to learn and play
well into late adulthood,” Univer-
sity of South Florida researcher
Jennifer Bugos explained to
National Geographic. “Musical
training seems to have a benefi -
cial impact at whatever age you
start. It contains all the compo-
nents of a cognitive training pro-
gram that sometimes are over-
looked, and just as we work out
our bodies, we should work out
our minds.”
Musical training has been
shown to help improve motor
skills recovery after a stroke.
Other research is ongoing to
see whether choir singing can
help stave off the advance of
dementia.
“Music reaches parts of the
brain that other things can’t,” Uni-
versity of Westminster neuropsy-
chologist Catherine Loveday told
the Guardian. “It’s a strong cog-
nitive stimulus that grows the
brain in a way that nothing else
does, and the evidence that musi-
cal training enhances things like
working memory and language is
very robust.”
So even if I never play a note
for anyone other than myself, I’ll
still get some benefi t from what-
ever neural connections come
together during this learning
experience. That will help keep
my brain in good shape to learn
other new skills in the years to
come.
I’m determined to never stop
learning.
Ed Hunt is a writer and reg-
istered nurse who blogs on medi-
cal issues at redtriage.com and on
other subjects at theebbtide.blog-
spot.com. He lives in Grays River,
Washington.