Are We Ever Too Old To Learn?

Is age 19 too old to learn how to box? Deontay Wilder didn't think so. Deontay describes himself as having been a quiet kid who got into fights with bullies - fights that sent him to a school for at-risk kids when he was in 7th grade. Fortunately, that turned Deontay's life around and he later went to college on a basketball scholarship. However, when Deontay's daughter was born with a spinal defect, he had to drop out of college and get a job to pay her medical expenses. That's when he started to fight again - but this time in a ring. When Deontay was 22 he won the bronze medal for heavyweight boxing at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He didn't think he was too old to learn and the boys who work out at the same gym aren't too old to learn from his example.

If you're never too old to learn, are you ever too old to use what you've learned? Dora Torres didn't think so. When she competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics at age 41, she was the 1st American to compete in 5 Olympics, she was the oldest female swimmer in Olympic history and she won 3 silver medals. Dora has talent, motivation and experience. She also has a head coach, a sprint coach, two stretchers, two masseuses, a chiropractor and a nanny at a cost of approximately $100,000 a year. Of course, Dora might also need a Lasix surgeon. After completing her races she had trouble seeing the scoreboard and - seeing is believing.

Twenty years ago marine biology researchers learned about prochlorococcus. There are trillion trillions of these tiny microbes and their photosynthesis keeps oceans healthy and Earth habitable. They are also the base of the ocean's food chain and remove carbon dioxide from the air. Because one-fifth of the oxygen we breathe is provided by these marine bacteria, prochlorococcus should be a household word we're not too old to learn.

On a recent trip to Maine I learned why elastic bands are put around lobsters' claws. It's not to protect the consumer from the lobsters. It's to protect the lobsters from each other. Lobsters are cannibals. If they were left unbanded in tanks, they would eat each other. Although that information changed the way I think about lobsters, I still think they have a soft side. After all, lobsters can be buttered up.

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KNIGHT PIERCE HIRST takes humorous looks at life. Take a minute to make yourself smile at http://knightwatch.typepad.com

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