Most people, methinks, define themselves according to what they think they know. But, when I was just 23 years old (in prison of course) I realized that more than anything else, my ignorance defines me.
What I don't know separates me from the universe in which I find myself more than what I know. And since ignorance seperates, and knowledge joins, it is what I don't know that determines my limitations and my boundaries. And isn't that what a definition is? A description of limitations and boundaries.
Even when we think in terms of what we know, we are really only conversely experiencing what we don't know. I might think that I know my eyes are blue gray, but doesn't that just mean that I don't know how to say what color they really are? In other words, I don't know what color my eyes are at all, unless I am actually looking at them in the mirror. And then they are the color they appear, not the color of some words or even ideas I might hold in my mind.
It is thus my ignorance that I express when I believe myself to be expressing knowledge. And it is this ignorance that defines me.
Originally written by Joseph E. Duncan III - April 2, 2011 – 11 pm
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