The Vine

Amie MacPhee points us to this intriguing perspective from David Brooks, reflecting on the value of emotional education—life’s formative experiences that shape us in ways that are unexpected, unknown (at the time) and indelible.

Unlike the traditional, structured education we get in school, emotional educations are “unsupervised and haphazard.” And they are, Brooks argues, far more important to our long-term happiness and quality of life.

“In a normal schoolroom, information walks through the front door and announces itself by light of day. It’s direct. The teacher describes the material to be covered, and then everybody works through it.

The knowledge transmitted in an emotional education, on the other hand, comes indirectly, seeping through the cracks of the windowpanes, from under the floorboards and through the vents. It’s generally a byproduct of the search for pleasure, and the learning is indirect and unconscious.”

For Brooks it was the music of Bruce Springsteen. For me, I suppose it was discovering (as a ten-year-old) the early writing of Stephen King (The Stand and ‘Salem’s Lot still among my all time favorite books). Not exactly classical literature, granted, but being drawn into his rich and bizarre imagination utterly engaged my own. The work I do today is, at its core, the transfer of emotion. And the path to get here began, I now realize, there.

Where did yours?