I read an old letter today and came across a huge mistake in my thinking. I’m not going to explain what was in the letter because that’s not really important. It’s always so difficult when you get caught up in high emotion to step back and look at things objectively. It’s been nearly a year since I wrote that letter and my perspective has broadened. Realizing this caused me to change my MySpace headline to “Knowledge locks the door; perspective lets you shimmy up the drainpipe.”
I’ve learned that knowledge limits you, but I keep forgetting it and re-learning it. Once we know something we are trapped in an absolute condition. Because we know the answer, there can be only one solution to any given problem. Being able to step away and look at it again, to gain perspective shows us that there are in fact many solutions. We often forget this. We are often driven by the desire to simply solve the problem, to check it off on the list. I think most of us are trained to be uncomfortable not knowing something. But by becoming comfortable with not knowing, by accepting that you can just go on faith and walk in the dark, you can discover so much more. I have a good friend who’s been telling me this for years. I guess now I’m finally starting to get it.
