WISDOM OF MY ELDERS
Our elders do things and say things that we must grow into in order to comprehend them fully.
For example, my father once said to me: "The flies on the wall tell the news." That aphorism took a few years for me to encounter a context where his meaning was plain! I smiled broadly in remembrance of Daddy's wisdom and humor.
Another time, my late friend and teacher from Chicago, author of: INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS, MAN GOD AND CIVILIZATION, and CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST, John G. Jackson, sent me a mathematical problem, asking me to find the volume of a cylinder, right out of the blue, back in the early '80s after a speaking visit to Kansas City that I had sponsored for him.
Now, finally, as I delve into the history of African mathematics, which is world mathematics, I am beginning to understand the level of acuity required to know what Dr. Jackson's math problem on cylinders connotes and denotes. It is saying that African history must be both theoretical and practical. I must both know it and apply daily.
Dr. Jackson is pictured here.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
WISDOM OF MY ELDERS
WISDOM OF MY ELDERS
Our elders do things and say things that we must grow into in order to comprehend them fully.
For example, my father once said to me: "The flies on the wall tell the news." That aphorism took a few years for me to encounter a context where his meaning was plain! I smiled broadly in remembrance of Daddy's wisdom and humor.
Another time, my late friend and teacher from Chicago, author of: INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS, MAN GOD AND CIVILIZATION, and CHRISTIANITY BEFORE CHRIST, John G. Jackson, sent me a mathematical problem, asking me to find the volume of a cylinder, right out of the blue, back in the early '80s after a speaking visit to Kansas City that I had sponsored for him.
Now, finally, as I delve into the history of African mathematics, which is world mathematics, I am beginning to understand the level of acuity required to know what Dr. Jackson's math problem on cylinders connotes and denotes. It is saying that African history must be both theoretical and practical. I must both know it and apply daily.
Dr. Jackson is pictured here.