Okay, it is late, and this might be random... but the idea is saturating me right now, so here it comes...
It is so interesting to me how we feel we know truth... how, when we are children we ask questions, and are free to acknowledge the state of ignorance. Yet as we age, we feel we must have answers for when we are the adults and the children ask the questions of us. When I was younger, I remember realizing that most of my ideas about the world were simply my opinions, and that I knew little truth. Years passed. I aged. I experienced. Some of my ideas were disproved, while others were supported. The latter group took root, and every time the world showed an opinion as good-real-possible-agreed upon... every time, the roots grew deeper. Eventually those roots blossomed and sprouted my truths, and at some point, my opinions became my truths.
In the last 24+ hours I have seen two very strong reminders that my "truths" are often still nothing more than strongly reinforced opinions. Last night, I laughed at Hamlet. I laughed hard. I laughed darkly and ironically, but I laughed. I've never laughed at that play before. Have you read it? Everyone dies. Painfully. Tragically. Alone. It isn't funny- it is the "Great Tragedy". I thought that because a professor told me it was. "Okay" I said. Then I read it. I thought, "sad play"... tragedy... roots... truth. My truth upon entering the Bowmer Theater at OSF last night was that this was a play with only one laughable moment: the gravediggers... and the rest was palpably and painfully sad. How can truth be wrong? It was a truth built upon opinion... and when I was allowed to remember that, I was given the gift of seeing the play and the character of Hamlet in a new light-still tragic, yet with so many new shades... colors other than black and grey.
Tonight, my beautifully shy, but always stoic Mr. Darcy made me giggle with his awkwardness... and another one of the roots in my life was torn up... and it was wonderful.
Why is it we desperately cling to these truths that root us to one spot, and refuse to let us move? We can only see the world from a singular perspective when rooted down... and we miss so much.
We still think a tree is a tree...that's funny. But hard to live on. Our common views do keep us kinda riding the same hobby horse, which is probably good. Would be tough to make the journey together if we couldn't find the common ground. Thanks for the terrific insight.
ReplyDeleteWhile it is always beneficial and healthy to examine and re-examine where we have laid our roots, the fact that we will sometimes find that we have been rooted in error would not seem to negate the benefits of becoming rooted in the first place. Don’t forget that roots do more than anchor, they also provide for nourishment.... even during the harshest surface conditions. The anchor and the nourishment stand in contrast to a surface existence where we will be moved when the least bit of force is encountered. This may be desirable in some circumstances, but certainly not in all. A good example of deep roots would be a married couple of 17 years who still can define “wonderful” as one large, perfect mocha and a table for two.
ReplyDeleteI would say the important thing is to remember that there are areas to run our roots deep..... and areas to keep them shallow... and maybe even areas to just fly in whatever direction the wind takes us.....especially for a dragonfly.