Ignoramus

Sometimes when my dad was home on a Saturday, he would watch college football. I remember being preoccupied with other stuff like building model cars, sorting baseball cards, or working on a magic trick.

Being near a TV, but not watching it, is a different experience. I was aware of some things, but certainly not all the things. The announcers shared scores and other things like injuries. Someone would get hurt, disappear off field, and then eventually you’d hear an update. Some players would be out the rest of the game “due to a hairline fracture.” After hearing this several times, I thought “geez, they really need to design a new helmet for these players–they keep getting fractures on their hair line.”

My dad’s cousin once said, “don’t make fun of me for pronouncing a word wrong, it just means I learned it from reading.” This is ignorance. Too often, that word carries a negative feeling. You might have felt that negative emotion reading, “This is ignorance.” We were all ignorant about nearly everything at some point. We may feel like we should know everything about everything, but we simply don’t and can’t. We have to learn, we must continue to learn.

Can I find joy in my ignorance as an opportunity to learn something new? Will I embrace a chance to help someone else learn something new? Can I be patient with myself and others for not knowing?

Be curious, be kind, be whole, do good things.