Running (to standstill)?

All times are extra(n)ordinary(sic) if they we not there would be no progress backwards or forwards. To pretend that there is something special about this time is to take away from issues Friends coped with in the past unless what is being said is that Friends are running to standstill. If we are doing so we are so behind the times we must give up now.
We all have the skill base which can be developed in order that we keep pace and/or move ahead - just look at Sheffield Quaker blog or Quaker Faith and Fellowship plus the many other any one who has taught knows that to keep up with computers and developing technologies they have to be autodidacts (in the main). If a Friend, with normal abilities, were to claim they could not change a plug, do a working drawing, phone a specialist I would be scared. The Ammish are far ahead of us in such matters if that is the case.
Life is a learning process but is too much tied to a building called a school or university and we have to demolish such a view. As we are all ministers we are all pupils and teachers and need to maintain that awareness but to say that these times are extra(n)ordinary(sic) is to put yourself and others down. History is made by all people who live throuh such times not simply special people - unless that is the case you wish it to be.
To take Pope slightly out of context (and meaning)
Know then thyself presume not God to scan
The proper study of mankind is man.

We need to de-school this society in order that it can learn and develop. Know your weaknesses and strengths and learn how to live with both. Learn your insignificance and live with that. In fact simply learn to learn - simply if needs be but do not affect naif ineptitude that is the cop out of the pseudo-intellectual. If you can gather degrees you can mend a fuse - if you can't where did your so-called education let you down?
Peter
(And if you think I have a chip on my shoulder I may have but I also have one on my other shoulder to balance it out! It comes from my experience of life which I have to work hard at times to overcome but I am not alone in that am I?)