954
(1 vote, average 5.00 out of 5)
Written by Paul Varnell
Jun 3, 2010
There is much to be gained from a lifetime of continuing education. The world has many riches and sources of pleasure to absorb. Those broad survey courses we all took in college provided only a smattering of what is available on any topic. They were designed to whet the appetite for learning more.
Self-education beyond college can involve reading books. But it also includes travel to new places, learning about different peoples and their cultures and the effort to have new experiences (e.g., in music, in art, in personal growth).
I can offer my own experience as an example. In recent years I have had to learn something about art and art history – after I was assigned the task of writing art reviews. It took me a while to get up to speed, but I spent a lot of time focusing on art, which benefitted my reviews and evaluations.
Based on my experience, gays have an advantage in pursuing the humanities and social sciences. There is almost always a gay aspect to them that can serve as an opening to the whole topic in its broader aspects.
Most subjects have a gay angle. I mentioned art because of the number of modern artists who are gay and who have painted on gay themes.
Music? There are a number of gay composers, especially in modern times. There are many gay performers, (many of whom remain to be de-closeted) and an increasing number of compositions on gay themes (e.g., Benjamin Britten’s opera “Billy Budd).”
Film? There are gay characters, a few gay actors and even a gay producer or director or two.
Drama? There are gay playwrights and gay characters in many modern plays and maybe in earlier plays as well. English and American literature? There are any number of gay writers and gay characters? Psychology? There is the history of the treatment of homosexuals and the failed attempt to develop a theory about homosexuality (e.g., Freud).
History? The whole field is loaded with the treatment of gays and, in the last 60 years, the revolution by gays and lesbians and the resistance against the legal and medical abuses visited upon us in the past.
Anthropology? How various cultures view homosexuality and what, if anything, they do about it. Sociology? The growth of the gay movement and the worldwide gay community. Economics? Why gays live in some places rather than others, how gays fare in salary and benefits compared with heterosexuals (does being technically single help or hurt career advancement?).
You get the idea. It is hard to believe that there is any gay person who is not interested in at least one or more of those topics and would not want to learn about it or them.
