One thing about life experience — you don’t appreciate how important it is unless and until you have it yourself. Even if you have it though, I realize that it may likely be different than mine.

It is life experience — which includes your education, upbringing, morals, values, human interactions and experiences in general — that shapes your opinions and views that you have on current events. As I grow older and have more and more experiences and view more and more of human nature, I realize that my analysis and opinions have a wider and wider pool of observations to draw from.

When I talk to certain people about current topics, I am often initially amazed about how they could possibly draw a particular conclusion or make a particular observation based on the points under discussion. I then realize that they have not had certain experiences that I have had and perhaps not had the time that I had over the years to reflect and analyze an issue. Without making any value judgement on who may have the “better” life experience, suffice to say that it is probably different to mine.

When talking to young people who have much less life experience than I do, I remember the fact that I too was once in their position. I would like to think though that when I was younger, I knew that I didn’t have the life experience of my elders — but in actuality, I probably didn’t appreciate it that much.

What is disturbing though is the difference between simple ignorance and arrogance. It is okay to not know something because you have never learned it or never experienced it. But it is another thing if you simply reject out of hand certain truths that another person has observed.

It is true that the older I get the more I learn how much there is that I do not know. But that is not the end of the story. I continue to learn more and more each day too. This adds to my life experience and further shapes my viewpoints.

You can’t fault someone for simply being innocently ignorant. But it is important to leave aside the arrogance of thinking that you’ve got everything all figured out.