We all know we learn from experience. So, the question is: how much experience does it take? I think it depends on what the lesson is. More specifically, how painful the lesson is.
I keep forgetting that I can't turn left going east on 400 South at 900 East. On several occasions, I have had to go straight, quite a way up 400 South / 500 South to 1100 East before I can flip a U-turn and return to 900 East. Apparently, I haven't learned this lesson yet. Is it painful? Not really. Mildly annoying, I would say.
On the other hand, I remember when my little brother stuck his thumb in the cigarette lighter in our car when we were kids. I didn't even need to experience that lesson first-hand. Second-hand was quite enough to teach me that I didn't need to try that.
Couldn't we, as a society, learn more second-hand than we do? Couldn't we learn more from each other? Couldn't we learn more from history? OR, are we so determined to experience... to try, to feel, to understand, to LIVE... that we have to do it ourselves? Again and again?
Ironically, when we feel pain, we know we are alive. Personally, I feel more alive when I feel joy and happiness. I don't particularly like learning painful lessons, but when I can enjoy a triumph over a painful experience avoided, that is when I know I have succeeded.
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