An Honest Man

I’m not a sexist, so the title should read ‘An Honest Man or Woman’. OK, that’s out of the way. Now, let’s get back to it.

An honest person (should have said that from the beginning!), oh well, I’m just being honest here. Getting back to the message, again, an honest person knows what he knows but doesn't understand its full context. Therefore there is much that he doesn't know. We simply don’t know all of this stuff.

That said, we do have to face the reality that we do not know many things. That is proposition one of this posting.

The second proposition is this: we fake our way through life much of the time. We do not like to appear unknowing (that’s stupid to most of us!), so we pretend we know what we are talking about, or thinking. It’s a social thing – to get along we go along. Problem is, that requires a lot of letting important things go as though we understand them. It is  a form of social stupidity. And it builds and builds until harm is eventually done.

The third proposition is this: most of us are lured into honestly seeking answers to questions we do not understand. We do this in private of course, because the social context is we don’t want to appear stupid. We share some drinks, imbibe too much, but then feel the freedom to ask the questions we want answered. Or maybe we are at university and a casual bull session forms and many topics are discussed that really do open up our eyes. From there much more is possible to ask and seek answers.

The fourth proposition is the most important: once we experience the freedom of asking stupid questions and discussing all possible answers, we can catch the germ of doing this again and again and soon we are on a journey of discovery. It takes dedication to do this. It also takes a certain degree of courage. We do not know what we will discover that is good and what is bad. Some things will build up our spirit, and others will depress it.

Here’s the thing, without embarking on this journey great leaps of possibility are left abandoned without proper dissection, understanding and use for building the platform for the next discovery. Greatness is like that.

I firmly believe that greatness resides in each of us. Together we can build on that greatness to another degree of greatness, but only if we can forget ourselves and let the freedom of discovery happen. It takes trust in each other. More important, however, it takes trusting the self within me first of all.  Am I capable? Am I worth it? Am I dedicated enough to share, be vulnerable to others, and accept new ideas?

That is the big question. That is the core of what ails us each as persons alone, as well as persons together. Place this on a national platform and the enormity of the propositions grow exponentially. Couple that with other nations living together on the same planet and you comprehend the enormous task of diplomacy.

It is based on trust. On selflessness. On interest in knowing more about other people. It is based on losing the self to gain the other. A leap of faith in mankind is required to do this work.

Who is listening to me? Who is listening to us? Why do we do this at all?

Because it is an elemental truth that one man seeks another, or shall I preferably say, one person seeks another person to experience being human. No person is an island to paraphrase John Donne. Each of us seeks companionship to forge ahead into the unknown and discover what’s out there.

Wasting time, energy and financial resources on weaponry rather than peace is such a colossal loss of possibility.

May honest people come together and make the possibilities come into being!

August 7, 2014