Words of Wisdom?

A clear out and tidy up of shelves and drawers a while ago produced an old school exercise book, entitled, along with my name, "Autobiography" and "Form 4A". That would have been when I was 14 or 15 years old, at school in London, and mostly behaving myself.   

 

I'd filled all but a few pages at the back with recollections from early childhood up to my teenaged self at the time. The contents - probably the outline given by teachers for this project - included  "My First Day at School", "An Early Achievement", "A Film I always Remember", "My Happiest/Saddest Day"and so on. My handwriting was super neat; a fountain pen filled with Stephen's vibrant blue ink had been used, and my somewhat immature words of wisdom were illustrated with black and white photos of myself at various ages.

I tend to associate the idea of wisdom and visionary foresight with some of the qualities of the planet Jupiter; we gain sensory experience via Jupiter, which is associated with perception, sight and the eyes. I'd extend that to include insight - the ability to connect with an inner view and the use of intuition. Perhaps an "aha!" moment.

Back to my old school book - the whole thing made for a fascinating, nostalgic read and the photos brought back many memories, but what really grabbed my attention were the two final sections.

• The penultimate one, "What I want to be", begins: 

"My future ambition is to be a primary school teacher. I intend to stay at school until the sixth year, by which time I will be eighteen. The qualifications that I will need will be at least five GCE's at "O" Level, but I hope to pass English and History at both "O" and "A" level....." 

I got the 5 "O"s - English was one of them - and the 2 "A"s, but they were French and Art. And I did become a primary school teacher. Prophetic? Visionary? Jupiterian? Or just aiming for something I really wanted, and succeeding in getting there?

• What I'd written in the final section -  "The World I Want" -  was not so very far from where I am now, decades later, in my attitudes, values and viewpoints. The world my teenage self wanted then was one

 "....where disputes against foreign countries should be forgotten....every man and woman should have an equal chance to live prosperously....violence has no place as it creates fear...all children should be given an equal chance for a good education...." Idealistic yes, but much of what I'd written then I agree with now. It rings both true and relevant in light of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine and the devastation this is causing in so many lives.

These were formative years, and I now have the maturity and life experience (Jupiter again) to draw upon. But it's interesting and reassuring to discover that I knew what was important and what I wanted back then. 

Read what I wrote a few years ago about Jupiter's association with sight, perception and risk-taking:

Jupiter and the Art of Risk Taking