I was reminded today of a chat I've had with others here, about how difficult it can be difficult to carry knowledge well.
Knowledge ≠ wisdom, but it's so easy--if you've done plenty of deep dives into an historical theme, sifted through all the awful evidence yourself, or pored through the scientific studies--to react dismissively to someone raising a doubt or credulous belief in something you know flat-out is false.
It's *so easy* to forget the work that went into arriving at your truth.
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The other day I was sharing some of that deep historical knowledge with a friend of mine on the street, on an astronomy/atmosphere theme, when a fellow sitting near us wanted to feel included in the conversation.
So he ventured a question - do you believe that aliens have visited us - that I far too quickly dismissed.
Only after I'd given my initial reply, though, did I realize that he was trying to share an experience of wonder he'd had (which by the sounds of it was a weather balloon).
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But the risk of conflating "times to share knowledge" and "times to just be human together" is ever-present.
I find it best to think about my spheres of subject knowledge, and my voracious appetite for ongoing learning, as a *loss* in one pretty key way.
Every time I do a deep dive, I'm going on a solo journey through the data.
*Wisdom* comes from returning from that deep dive with the humility to realize that time away from others means I have a whole bunch of catch-up "peopling" to do next.
@MLClark it's cool to kick yourself from time to time for a screw up.
It's also funny.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for reading! I'm glad my fool self amused. :)
Anyway--
Long way of saying I can be a real numbnuts sometimes. 🙃
Any learning that estranges you from your fellow human beings isn't *finished* learning: not by a long shot.