I like to look things up. I always have. Since I was a little kid, I found immense interest in the “finding out” of things And, back in those yesteryears, the “finding out” was so very different than it is today.
Today, we have the miraculous internet, which so many of us have come to take for granted. But isn’t it incredible? Do you want to know if fish recognize their mom & dad fish? Or perhaps you want the recipe for those cute cupcakes with the tiny marshmallows on top that end up looking like sheep. Maybe you want to know the year the first submarine was built, or which continent has the highest population.
The answers are just keystrokes away. And they come to us in a blink of an eye. For instance…. Ants stretch when they wake up in the morning. And our neighbor Mars appears red because it’s covered in rust.
Do you like to eat cereal? It is easier because of Barry Manilow. Dairy cows give more milk when they listen to calming music. Oh, we could do this dance all night long.
Now the “finding out” of information can be pretty fast. But we’ve established…. it wasn’t always that way. Not so long ago, a person would really have to get off their butt, and do some exploring. First, you had to know where to look, and then you had to physically go do it.
We had a big red-hardback Webster’s Dictionary at our house. I loved that book. Specifically, as I recall, it was a Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary. I didn’t know what unabridged meant, until I had a lightning-flash-revelation to look it up in that very same book.
I would spend hours reading that thing. One word would take me to the next. I would find what something meant, but then I needed further clarification, or other questions would arise. And I would scurry through the pages to find the next meaning. I would eat up those answers like vanilla ice cream on apple pie.
The same was true of our Encyclopedia Brittanica Volumes. And our local library. It was all like one big treasure trove to me. Just waiting to open up the doors of the unknown, and make them known.
I so love that part of life. The exploration of information. The answers. I seem to always be asking questions… only in hopes of finding those answers.
Yet. There are times in life when no answers can be found. Things we want to know…. and to know them absolutely. Without a reason of a doubt. But the answers evade us. They escape us, or they are too well hidden.
I’m not sure what it is…. that I am supposed to do…. when I can’t find the answer.
Maybe it isn’t important for me to know. Life certainly goes on without “the finding out” of some things.
Perhaps it is best to understand that we cannot know everything. Maybe we know very little at all.
In fact, as Socrates told us… “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
And sometimes, I truly feel…… like I know nothing.