How We Learn

Some people a fascinated by cars. They read about them and work on them and understand how the whole thing runs. Others, like me, learn about the car piece by piece, as various parts break down.

Some people love geography. They study atlases and can name every capitol of every country, even the new ones. Others, like me, learn about the world piece by piece, as some foreign war or disaster happens.

Some people are obsessed with illness. They study symptoms and literally know the human body from head to toe. Others, like me, learn about such things piece by piece, mostly when either I or a friend get sick. And right now, I think America is getting a lesson in medicine that surprises us.

Terri Schiavo is (as I write this she is alive) in a "persistent vegetative state," medical experts inform us. I bet if you had polled the public a few weeks ago and asked what this meant, they would have said it's essentially a coma. That anyone who's a vegetable simply doesn't respond to anything. So I (and I'm guessing millions) are surprised to discover that persistent vegetative state is not a coma at all; that the person sleeps and wakes and breathes--that they even respond to external stimuli and can make noise.

Like they say, you learn something new every day.