Learning

I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.

~ Winston Churchill

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I learn things from Leslie all the time.  Sometimes we talk about things we learn from things we have read or discussions in which we have participated.  Sometimes we learn from experiences we have had as teachers.  I think I almost always learn more from teaching than from studenting.

The other night we were talking about primates.  Leslie had heard a story - though she stressed to me that she had not fact-checked it - about a chimpanzee who learned sign language.  The chimp expressed sorrow to one of her scientists when the scientist shared she had lost her baby.  The same chimpanzee taught her baby sign language.  

Leslie - who often thinks I doubt the information she shares with me - said, "I don't know if it's true, but if it is, isn't it amazing?  How can that happen?"

I said, "IT'S PLANET OF THE APES!!  IT'S STARTING!"

She said, "You're making fun of me.  Do you think it's possible?"

I said, "Sure.  That's how we got language.  Humans learned it from the scientists."

Leslie:  What are you talking about?

Me:  The scientists.  The ones who kept us in cages and taught us language.

She said, "You're making fun of me.  I am not saying it's true.  I'm just saying I heard it."

Me:  No, I believe you.  The same thing happened with a chimp on Mr. Rogers.  And then she cried when he died.

(long pause)

She:  You're making fun of me.

Me:  (getting the giggles)  No.  No, it's true.  I know it sounds made up, but it's really true.

Leslie:  I don't know whether to believe you or not.

Me:  (laughing harder)  I know!  It sounds like a lie.  It sounds like a lie I would make up, but it's not.  

Leslie:  Hm.

(Turns out it was a gorilla named Koko and she cried when Robin Williams died, not Mr. Rogers, but I was not trying to lie.  I just was mistaken)

Me:  I think that primates can learn sign language...  it has something to do with brain size.

Leslie:  Maybe.

Me:  Like they have taught dolphins sign language.

Leslie:  How is that even possible?!

Me:  (laughing really hard)  Okay, that one I made up.  But the Mr. Rogers thing is true.

Leslie:  The only thing dolphins can do is flip you off.

Which is what I think maybe Leslie was doing to me in her brain.  Also, I think maybe I am learning to read minds.