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Alas and alack.- another best loved companion bites the dust.

With each passing year, old companions and favorite pastimes fade away and get filed in our memory banks to be called forth and savored at odd moments. Once you reach a "certain age" you notice that those passings start occurring ever more frequently – and you notice that you're enjoying those fond memories much more completely.

It happens when favorite actors and actresses move on to a "better place" leaving the characters they played to dance and bewitch us on the big screen from time to time. It happens when black and white tv and other fancy gadgets that entertained us for hours on end in the not so distant dark ages – take on morph into ever more fancy gadgets….bringing color, 3-D and the like into our lives.

Well, it's happening again. Encyclopedia Britannica is moving online and it's voluminous tomes will no longer rest on the floor in front of a child engaged in the flights of fancy between its covers.

I don't know which I loved more, the Encyclopedia or the Book of Knowledge. But I'm glad my parents were willing to sacrifice to ensure that we could enjoy both. Long lazy summer days between school terms when active youngsters were bored, and cold winter nights that chilled our found us cuddled up and engrossed in those magnificent pages.

Now you're probably thinking, here goes, another old fogie brooding about the good ol' days.

Nope.

I will admit I have deeply mixed feelings about the passing of these loved companions and their move online. While I will treasure those memories I'm equally thrilled that now books are coming of age. What a joy to be able to explore the world – not just in words and pictures – but also in real time. 

I wish to say a heartfelt thank you for all those delightful experiences and companions who have grown up and old with me. 

We never get so old that we should stop asking questions. It's in the asking – and in listening – that we achieve advanced education.

What is education, after all – but allowing ourselves to expand our understanding of the world we live in.

Degrees are little more than pieces of paper that attest to our completion of a certain level of schooling and – in the process – hopefully have achieved a level of competence in being able to think intelligently.  Degrees are our commission giving us the authority to go forth and learn.

Actually, the older we get the more we should treasure our ability to ask questions. Because it's in asking questions that we discover just how much we don't know

Why?

Because everything in our known universe is in a constant state of change. That means that we cannot assume that we know anything for sure, until we ask questions and challenge what we know in light of what we experience at any given moment. . 

Country boundaries and names change, technology introduces new products and procedures on a daily basis, people grow and change, achieve new skills and deal with new challenges on a momentary basis. The truly educated individual understands that and is open to possibilities recognizing that he or she only sees a small piece of the puzzle – and must adapt to an ever changing universe.

So if I ask you questions, it's not because I'm stupid, it's that I am trying to learn and understand knowing that this is a lifelong challenge. More than that, the older I get, the more I discover how little I really do know after all.

Every once in a while I have a lesson to learn and – ready or not – it catches me off guard.

While this is not the sharpest picture I've ever taken, I think you'll appreciate it.

Being young, Sparrow doesn't sit still very often. Open a door and she's out to explore the unknown in a flash..Everything in her condominium universe is an adventure to explore. For her life is a never-ending opportunity to go-go-go..

It's not uncommon for her to climb into my lap on onto my desk insisting  that I stop that infernal tap- tap- tapping of my laptop keys so she can claim her rightful place as my sole focus of attention. But she also knows that if I'm "in the flow", I am not likely to be distracted. In cases like that, when I'm don't respond quickly enough to suit her, she's off looking for other diversion. .

Well, Sparrow had poked her nose in my face several times without being able to get my attention. I continued to work a short while before taking a break. Then I saw her. Sparrow was patiently sitting on top of her scratching pole (this was the first time I'd ever seen her do there). She volunteered not a sound and moved not a muscle. Can you see what she was telling me? 

Yes, she's figured out that good things come to those who wait.

It's a powerful lesson for me. We get so impatient when things don't go the way we want. We see it in politics and in our home life and at work. We want what we want when we want it – right this instant. Too often we don't give others or ourselves the time we need to finish what we start before we expect the rewards that come to a job well done.We fail to remember that sometimes we have to have periods of rain or a bleak winter or even drought before we can enjoy glorious flowers.  We forget that sometimes it takes time for things to happen and that it's foolish to try to rush the process of life when a little patience will often bring wonderful surprises.

So now I have a delightful reminder. When I start beating my head against the proverbial wall until it's bloody trying to make things go my way right this minute, I look at Sparrow and remember: Perhaps the better approach is to sit quietly and wait because the best things in life take time to materialize.