Speaking of great minds (last time it was Einstein), it was Socrates who said, “I am the wisest of men; I am the only man who knows he knows nothing.”
Was it false humility?
Sounds more like true humility, one that sits at the feet of everything, realizing he’s a guest in the garden, in the world, the universe.
He apparently never stopped wondering. And the deeper he looked, the more he saw there’s no end to the depth to any of it.
And how about Job. Remember him? Full of wisdom and wealth, he was the greatest among his peers at the time. He thought he knew some things about life and God, but in the end he put his hand over his mouth and confessed, “I have known nothing at all.”
We can hardly relate to either of these. We think we know some things . . . and we’d feel pretty inadequate if we didn’t. But maybe we haven’t looked deep enough. When we do, we realize we’re just scratching the surface.
Happily, even the surface, most days are wondrous enough.
Have one like that.
Job, from an earlier sketchbook. I thought I had one of him with his hand over his mouth, but can’t place it just now. Perhaps this one reveals well enough the end of his wisdom and the beginning of wonder.
Our Lives Together
Its About Life
3:30 pm
I think there is an intersection where wonder meets knowledge, (and that’s one more thing to wonder about)…neither is better or worse than the other. I sometimes wonder how long I have to live on this earth, but I really don’t want to know. And then some things that I know are so burdensome that I wish I could just wonder about them instead.There is something counterintuitively beautiful and innocent about not knowing. I really do thank God for how much I don’t have to know, and for the freedom just wonder about it instead.
3:41 pm
Very thoughtful, Scott, and a positive perspective. Thanks.
5:43 am
I want to beg you, as much as I can, dear sir, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.
One of my favorite Rilke quotes….It feels like ‘loving and living the questions,’ might be a lot like wonder/wondering/wandering.
Love the encouragement you always give, Hyatt, to think deeply about life, as opposed to just going through the daily in the opposite way.
7:27 am
Thanks Robbi, I like the “loving and living,” and “wondering and wandering,” even if lifted slightly out of your context. All good words. Thanks for reading.
10:23 am
This is rich gentlemen. And has truly blessed me. I aim to wonder and wander more and allow what I’ve learned to be less of a burden. Having Daniel’s moment could help: “I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless.” I believe we are in a time when God is restoring awe and reverence.
12:35 pm
Thanks, Joseph. Yes, it’s a good use of our time. And thanks for the “gentlemen.” (Of course Robbi is a woman.)