I came across this statement recently and I like it because says something important about life and learning. To wander means to meander, to roam, to explore, to try new things, to think openly. When we wander, we deliberately choose to broaden our focus and to read, study, and consider new facts, ideas, and thoughts.
I think that people who know me well would say that this part of how I live my life. I tend to be broadly interested in lots of things. In college I was a music major, then switched to Spanish, history and eventually educational research. By then I had decided to pursue an academic career and focus on scholarly books, ideas, reading, thinking, and writing. After 13 years, I left my university position to head a think tank and that eventually led me to where I am today. Over this period of time, my views about such things as religion and politics evolved and changed as well.
Much of my broadening came about as a result of reading and talking with people with whom I disagreed. I have found such experiences to be vital to my personal growth. Talking only with like-minded persons or reading only books that support your current thinking is like jogging in a cul-de-sac. It's important to read and hear points of view that are disturbing and to hear things from another perspective. Doing so makes you a wiser person in the long run.
We should also keep in mind that wandering is often the key to making new discoveries. Some of the most famous discoveries were made by people who digressed from the conventional avenues of thought or from cultural or religious tradition. Louis Pasteur rejected then current medical theories about how diseases were spread. The Wright Brothers thought beyond improving the bicycle and their dissatisfaction with the present state of things motivated them to explore the new idea of traveling by air; something no one thought reasonable. If Columbus, Capernicus, Galileo, and Newton had not been willing to question traditional scientific and religious thought, they wouldn't have made the breakthroughs attributed to them.
In this vain we might consider George Bernard Shaw's observation that "all progress depends on the unreasonable man." This may well be true. Only people who are willing to look beyond what others see can contribute new knowledge to the world. Only those who go beyond what is traditional can break through the barriers of the past.
So, I don't regret my 'wandering.' Rather than feeling like I've been led off course, I feel like I have found out things I never would have known otherwise. When people wander, we shouldn't think they are lost. They may indeed be on the verge of great discoveries.
