Have
you ever been thrilled by what you didn’t know?
I
mean sincerely, truly, honestly happy because by not knowing:
there was nothing you could do… there were no expectations of
you… the net impact on your life was a whopping zero. Things like
that.
Have
you ever been thrilled by what you didn’t know?
We
all understand the cliché… because of the stuff you don’t
know, life is bliss.
But,
is it?
I
tend to say yes. But lately I’m wondering if it’s completely situational,
and I’ve just been fortunate that more often than not ignorance
has been bliss.
Examples?
Ok…
You
go on vacation for a week. While you’re gone, a family emergency
occurs. By the time you get home, it’s all cleaned up. Nothing
severe or life-threatening, where a call to you would have been
expected. But rather water in the parents’ basement or a sibling’s
broken-down car. And because you were away, no one pestered you
to come over at 3am and carry buckets of water up the stairs…
no one called you to pick them up at a repair shop on Monday while
asking for rides to important events on Tuesday, Wednesday and
Thursday.
My
wife jokes around about mind chatter, which is actually nothing
to joke around about. The basic concept can be described as having
a million things swirling around in your head when you try to
drift off at night. Instead of sleep arriving, you toss and turn
and stare toward the ceiling and toss and stare and turn and toss.
(One of my friends calls this “the monkeys pounding on the drums”…
as in “couldn’t sleep last night, the monkeys were pounding on
the drums”…I like that.) When does sleep arrive easily? Of course…
when the to-do list is complete… when a hard day of work ended
with a finished project… when no worries are on your mind… when
you’re at peace.
Buckets
of water. Monkeys pounding on drums. No phone calls and sleep
at night is bliss.
And
yet, the more things I learn of that I had no clue about, the
more I’m wondering if I’m far more ignorant about what’s really
going on than I ever knew.
How
often do you check things around your house for wear and tear
and other assorted issues?
Years
ago, after a particularly fun snow is on the roof, rising and
dropping temperatures, some strong winds few days, I walked into
the downstairs bathroom and spotted a bit of water on the floor.
Looking up, I saw water in the glass dome of the ceiling light.
I
turned off the electricity to the room. I dried out what I could.
Looked around and up and down and side to side. I waited a bit.
Eventually, power back on. Never found the exact source of the
water, never saw water there again.
I
am convinced it was ice dams from the snow and melting and refreezing
and wind. Convinced it was a fluke of circumstance that might
never occur again. And since it never reappeared over many more
years of our living there, and now we’ve moved, I’m not concerned
about it. Issue resolved even though the problem was never definitively
found.
The
thing is, I think we all have a bit of ignorance desire swirling
around inside of us. It’s the idea of not wanting to know how
something was made. It’s the idea of not wanting to be inconvenienced.
It’s the idea of there’s no problem to fix if I don’t know there’s
a problem that needs fixing. It’s the idea of just wanting to
get home, change to your pajamas, and sit in quiet with the television
on and a package of good cookies on the end table.
I
would argue we’re drawn to ignorance. It’s the natural state we
prefer. Drawn to the appeal of it. Drawn to the ease of it. Drawn
to the calm of it. And if that’s what we want…
Information
matters. Action and motivation are the foundation of accomplishment.
But simple and pure happiness? Perhaps we are better off not knowing.