Good morning neighbor.
I don't have much to say of any use but that's never stopped me from talking or writing before, so why start now?
What if we all waited to speak or write or otherwise communicate with others, until we truly had something of value to communicate?
I guess there would be a lot less stuff to look at in the check out line at Safeway.
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Have you ever stopped to think how unwilling we are as humans to admit to ourselves or others that quite often "we just don't know"?
Not sure if the "there's nothing I don't know" syndrome is more of a male phenonomena or spread equally among men and women. Is it spread equally amongst occupations or does it tend to be more pronounced in people who are supposed to know (Doctors and engineers come to mind) than say garbage collectors?
My mother was a Bridge player. I remember her telling me about one particular couple she played with. The husband was an engineer and he tended to think since he knew a lot about a little he knew a lot about a lot or knew everything...or at least gave my mom the impression he was somehow all knowing/impotent/infallible and I imagine an utter pain in the ass.
Where does this all go you say Jack? Can you wrap it up in a neat little package for us?
Just hold your horses little missy, we'll get their. Relax and have a cup of tea.
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My wife and I laugh everytime we think about a time her dad was working on the refrigerator at the lake cottage. The fridge had been slowly getting hotter on the outside and losing it's heating ability over a period of time one summer. I think we may have this on video, her dad was explaining the theory of cooling as the removal of heat or some law (or at least a local ordinance) of thermodynamics. You'd have to see it and have known him. He had a twinkle in his eye and it was funny because of that, and also because it turned out the reason the fridge was failing was a mouse had built a house in the cooling fan area. It's funny to watch and think about his half-kidding technical sort of explanation and some good natured ribbing by the audience watching him, "I didn't know you were a refrigeration expert dad?" and then the discovery of the ultimate cause of loss of cooling being a mouse.
Where is this going then? Thinking about knowing everything. As a human there are so many things we don't know and you know what?
That's scary.
So what do we do? We make up stuff.
About living, dying, life after death, other religions, my religion, other people, my people, my family, our family, men, women, my race, your race, my color, your color....you name it we made something up.
What's the good of admitting you don't really know?
For one thing you can quit being such a pompous ass.
It also would allow you to be surprised, more childlike, maybe more loving, less arrogant (sometimes I think my blog should be called "notes to myself")
One problem with admitting we don't know is it's a hell of a lot more work to live in that space of not-knowing. It's a state of constant tension. It's also a lot more fun and maybe a lot more life-like than giving in to the know it all in us.
Once I know something I can quit thinking, which gives me more time to stare at the tv or computer.
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Let's all repeat this to ourselves today, okay after me now -
"We don't know."
"We don't know."
"But that's okay."
"But that's okay."
"on my honor with liverty and jusice for all"
"on my honor with liverty and jusice for all"
"we dee endow"
"we dee endow"
"to watch Fox Network and Animal Planet with equal awe."
"to watch Fox Network and Animal Planet with equal awe."
So today we are going to say we don't know. Not we don't know and we don't care. We don't know and we care a lot. We care so much in fact that we are going to take some time and think and not just point and click and listen and watch but really get the old brain revved up.
That feels good eh?
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Here's a little sort of joke thing I read from Robert Crandall one time. He was giving a presentation to engineers and managers at a meeting of American Airlines employees. The story goes some thing like this.
I became an engineer and learned more and more about less and less until I knew all there was to know about nothing.
They promoted me to management and I found I had to be less specialized. I eventually learned less and less about more and more until I knew absolutely nothing about everything.
So we don't know then. But that's okay. We can live on faith. We can live in tension. We can think. We can change our minds. We can live, love and learn.
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Remember our promise today. We are going to admit we don't know even if it makes us look silly...but we are going to be very excited too because admitting that we don't know might just allow us to learn some thing new. Maybe not to hate someone because of the way they look, or talk or where they live. Maybe a chance to help someone who needs a hand. Maybe a way to look beyond what's right in front of our nose to a bigger picture that involves others. Maybe a chance to rethink or for the first time think about what someone told us or taught us about Hindus, or Christians, Moslems, white people, black people, red people, yellow people, blue people (...I'm kind of thinking if someone is blue you should probably "know" how to give CPR).
If you've never listened to Sly Stone's songs "Everyday People" or "Family Affair" they both touch on these ideas in a different (more talented less heavy handed) way. That's where the red, yellow, blue people thing came from.
One of the lines of Everyday People is, "There is a blue one who can't accept the green one." Figured you'd probably need to know that :-)
You can google up the lyrics to those songs as well as I can. Even better is to listen to the music. This page has some interesting comments on Sly Sly Stone - Everyday People
Just two other things while you are finishing your Chai.
Thinking about Martin Luther King Day this last Monday....
Everyone interested in U.S. history, and in some sense the history of the world at a certain place in time, should listen to the song Abraham, Martin and John
and finally
I highly recommend you and I take the time to listen to Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech given at the march on Washington August 28, 1963.
May all your good dreams come true...
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