Some years ago, my dear friend Michael told me he had decided to learn one new thing every year.  He wanted to grow and expand and add to his abilities and knowledge. So he did. One year he took an auto mechanics course, another he wrote a book, another he taught himself to cook deserts,  now that’s my kind of man;  another year he learned to swim…he was well into adulthood at the time, so it must have been doubly challenging.  This wasn’t a new-year resolution sort of thing either.  In fact he deliberately chose springtime as the optimal time to begin. I fell in love with this idea.  The prospect of learning something new every year was exhilarating and I wasn’t ready to miss any of life’s opportunities. Belly dancing, piano, zumba, French x2, flying, golf, yoga, pilates, tennis…I started them all well, but was a really, really poor finisher.  In…