I remember sitting on the front steps of my Boston-area triple-decker. My thoughts sometimes turned to getting out of the old neighborhood, seeing the world, and experiencing all that life has to offer. Don’t get me wrong. I loved that tough, old neighborhood and wouldn’t want to have grown up anywhere else.
We didn’t have many books in the house, so my city’s library got a workout. I enjoyed books on geography, history, cities, countries, cultures, sports, and the Olympic Games. We did have a Newsweek Magazine 1960s’ book series on the “Great Museums of the World” in the house. I remember looking at those same nine books and swearing that I would someday visit every one of those museums.
More than fifty years later and I still have those nine books on the Vatican Museum, Louvre, Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, British Museum, Uffizi in Florence, Prado in Madrid, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, National Gallery in London, and National Gallery in Washington DC. Most of those places seemed light years away at the time. I recall seeing the books 10 or 12 years ago, remembering my promise, and realizing that I had indeed visited every one of those museums and countless others across many countries. I took some comfort in that observation.
One week ago, however, I found on one of Walt’s bookshelves five more books from the same series. Guess what? I’ve been to none of those five museums: the Brera in Milan, Pinakothek in Munich, Tokyo National Museum, Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and Art History Museum of Vienna. Sure, I’ve been to some of these cities and several museums in Tokyo, but have never stepped foot in those five locations.
It’s a good lesson. The endless of joy of lifelong learning brings with it the inescapable reality that the more we know, the more we realize how little we know and just how large our world is. The humility of learning teaches powerful lessons. It stands in stark contrast to the know-it-alls and braggarts who if placed in leadership positions, for example, can do real harm to their people, their organizations and, yes, their countries, too. Self-confidence is always best served with a hearty helping of humility.
