The Humanities

Only recently have I discovered (at age 37!) a massive hole in my education. Growing up in west Africa, the emphasis during my school years was on hard science. My mom was rather upset when, in Form 4 (age 16), I had to drop Literature.

Leading out of this, the aforementioned hole started as a pinprick and later enlarged so that, until recently, it was a wind-blown tunnel. In my first year at the University of Benin, the Humanties were taught as a second's thought, deemed essentially useless. I believe I took only one paltry philosophy course. My brother, who is now trying to get a Pharmacy degree, had to retake all the Humanities since his transcripts from that school was oddly devoid of them.

Appreciating the Arts and Humanities would have helped me in many ways: from understanding the real difference between rhetoric (to persuade) and logic (to convince) to gaining an insight into human nature. I can't tell you how many times, all doe-eyed and innocent, I was blind-sided by other wilier creatures because I failed to understand one of the basic truths about human beings: we're all assholes, all hell-bent on self-gratification and self-defining the idea of what's good and what's bad.

To quote Michaelangelo, ancora imparo (I am still learning).