To Know, or not To Know

Warning: This article could make you think, it may open your mind to things you'd rather not know.

"For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow." - King Solomon, Ecc.1:18

On their free time, people sleep, others watch television, some read, still some, do nothing. But me, when I have free time, I think. This was one of those times.

On the way home from my university, as I analyze the phases of my life, I had a strange, yet convincing realization:

It's not about the ability of our minds to think, but rather, it's about the ability of our minds to keep itself from thinking.

Let me illustrate this in a more understandable way. Imagine yourself shooting a basketball. You are not thinking as you shoot, you're simply shooting and you are making your shots, no big deal. But as you see your shots go in, you begin to get conscious. You begin to ask yourself things like "What if this next shot doesn't go in? What if it doesn't hit the ring? What if I miss? What if, what if?" Thinking of these things will increase your tendency to miss the shot. Well, that's just it.

When you do an act of charity, you feel joyful, because kindness brings joy. But as you become aware that others are watching you, it becomes harder. Look, it's easy to say: "Don't mind what others might think", but to really apply it is the more serious part.

The late C.S. Lewis pondered that we humans have this dilemma:

". . .either to taste and not to know, or to know and not to taste. As thinkers, we are cut off from what we think about; as tasting, touching, willing, loving, hating, we do not clearly understand. The more lucidly we think, the more we are cut off: the more deeply we enter into reality, the less we can think. You cannot study Pleasure in the moment of the nuptial embrace, nor Repentance while repenting, nor analyse the nature of humour while roaring with laughter. But when else can you really know these things? 'If only my toothache would stop, I could write another chapter about Pain.' But once it stops, what do you know about pain?" (1)

You see my friend, most people who ask for knowledge do not really know what they're asking for. But the truth is - Life is Beautiful. It;s meant to be enjoyed, to be tasted, to felt, to be lived, much less to be understood. After all, God is Life, and He did not command us to understand Him with all our hearts, soul, strength and mind. He just told us to love Him. (2)What's easier to do?

"Of making many books, there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh."

- King Solomon, Ecc. 12:12

So, do you still wanna know it all? ;-)

Footnotes:

1. Myth Became Fact by C.S. Lewis, 1944

2. Mark 12:30