KNOWING/UNKNOWING
I will never be a brain surgeon, and Iwill never play the piano like
Glenn Gould.
But what keeps me up late at night, and constantly gives me reason to
fret, is this: I don't know what I don't know. There are universes of
things out there — ideas, philosophies, songs,subtleties, facts,
emotions — that exist but of which I am totally and thoroughly
unaware. This makes me very uncomfortable. I find that the only way to
find out the fuller extent of what I don't know is for someone to tell
me, teach me or show me, and then open my eyes to this bit of
information, knowledge, or life experience that I, sadly, never before
considered.
Afterward, I find something odd happens. I find what I have just
learned is suddenly everywhere: on billboards or in the newspaper or
SMACK: Right in front of me, and I can't help but shake my head and
speculate how and why I never saw or knew this particularthing before.
And I begin to wonder if I could be any different, smarter, or more
interesting had I discovered it when everyone else in the world found
out about this particular obvious thing. I have been thinking a lot
about these first discoveries and also those chance encounters: those
elusive happenstances that often lead to defining moments in our
lives.
[…]
I once read that thedefinition of insanity is doing the same thing
over and over and expecting differentresults. I fundamentally disagree
with this idea. I think that doing the same thing over and overand
expecting different results is the definition of hope. We might keep
making mistakes but the struggle gives us a sense of empathy and
connectivity that we would not experience otherwise. I believethis
empathy improves our abilityto see the unseen and better know the
unknown.
Lives are shaped bychance encounters and by discovering things that we
don't know that wedon't know. The arcof a life is a circuitous one. …
In the grand scheme of things, everything we do isan experiment, the
outcome of which isunknown.
You never know when a typical life will be anything but, and you won't
know if you are rewriting history, orrewriting the future, until the
writing is complete.
This, just this, I am comfortable not knowing.
Originally written by Debbie Millmans
taken with thanks from http://literaryjukebox.brainpickings.org/post/36877015151
Glenn Gould.
But what keeps me up late at night, and constantly gives me reason to
fret, is this: I don't know what I don't know. There are universes of
things out there — ideas, philosophies, songs,subtleties, facts,
emotions — that exist but of which I am totally and thoroughly
unaware. This makes me very uncomfortable. I find that the only way to
find out the fuller extent of what I don't know is for someone to tell
me, teach me or show me, and then open my eyes to this bit of
information, knowledge, or life experience that I, sadly, never before
considered.
Afterward, I find something odd happens. I find what I have just
learned is suddenly everywhere: on billboards or in the newspaper or
SMACK: Right in front of me, and I can't help but shake my head and
speculate how and why I never saw or knew this particularthing before.
And I begin to wonder if I could be any different, smarter, or more
interesting had I discovered it when everyone else in the world found
out about this particular obvious thing. I have been thinking a lot
about these first discoveries and also those chance encounters: those
elusive happenstances that often lead to defining moments in our
lives.
[…]
I once read that thedefinition of insanity is doing the same thing
over and over and expecting differentresults. I fundamentally disagree
with this idea. I think that doing the same thing over and overand
expecting different results is the definition of hope. We might keep
making mistakes but the struggle gives us a sense of empathy and
connectivity that we would not experience otherwise. I believethis
empathy improves our abilityto see the unseen and better know the
unknown.
Lives are shaped bychance encounters and by discovering things that we
don't know that wedon't know. The arcof a life is a circuitous one. …
In the grand scheme of things, everything we do isan experiment, the
outcome of which isunknown.
You never know when a typical life will be anything but, and you won't
know if you are rewriting history, orrewriting the future, until the
writing is complete.
This, just this, I am comfortable not knowing.
Originally written by Debbie Millmans
taken with thanks from http://literaryjukebox.brainpickings.org/post/36877015151
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