You Never Know What You Do Not Know

There is one intellectual fact that each of us share the burden of coping with every single day:  “We Never Know What We Do Not Know.”

We can probably agree that we can’t know everything — but where do we draw the line between not knowing something and deciding we don’t need to know?  Is there a danger in asking?  Is there a punishment for wondering?

When we choose not to know, are we censoring the truth?  If we have a sense that knowing will anger or upset us, do we use ignoring as a defense mechanism from feeling the winding truth?

If we decide we are morally bound to know as much as possible — how do we handle that unquenchable thirst that can never be slaked?  Knowledge must sustain us without drowning us in the bitted details.

I cogent life requires making informed decisions on inadequate evidence and that conundrum of living is precisely where we get into trouble.  We think we know what we know when we really know nothing at all.

Is the wiser path to say, “I don’t know” or “Let me find out?”  If you choose to find out, how can you trust the potency of what you hope to reference?  Can it be that we know nothing at all except a few clues to questions we can never really answer?

The acquisition of knowing is the most important task we must complete every single day.  There is always something new to learn and then share.  We cannot live by rote.  We must not die in details.  When we share important things and not trivial meanderings, we raise the stake of thought in our culture and that enhances all our chances of making it forward into another day.  To just live without knowing something new is the height of danger and pretentiousness because what you don’t know really can kill you.