Experience Does Teach

Who is to bring to fruition
The accumulated lessons of Experiences?
Does time, eventually, lead to
The manifestation of a life
more tried and approved?
Or does experience simply
shape life as time goes by?

Many are the times
a famous saying has pierced the ear:
Experience does teach.
If this be true, what is this teaching?
A lesson that instructs one
to become less open, more selfish
and even more suspicious of a fellow man?
Or a positive teacher that makes
its student a better citizen?

Over the years, hurt has
Made many lose the ability
to trust and to love and to forgive.
Then again, over the years,
Ignorance has led many to
lifelong and irreparable mistakes.

Experience - a useful tool, perhaps
It all comes down to
What one makes of it -
Either it shapes into a better,
more learned and more prudent person
Or it transforms into a cunning,
self-centered methodist.
Experience teaches, but
one's understanding of its lessons
is what shapes tomorrow.