What if someone calling you ignorant was an exciting moment in your life? Read on to find out how that might make more sense than you’d expect.
Why am I writing about ignorance? Well, I wrote a poem (which I will share on this blog soon), and one of the lines is:
Only ignorance or idealism
Could convince a person
That their impossible burger
Is more beneficial than agricultural regeneration
Every time I speak this poem I get a little twinge of discomfort. This is because I’m convinced that most people believe the word ignorant to be an insult.
In simplest terms, ignorance is defined as ‘lack of knowledge’.
It’s not an insult. It’s a state. It’s changeable. It’s an invitation.
It’s ok, everyone is ignorant
First of all, there’s nothing wrong with being ignorant!
Think about the sum total of all that can ever be known (no pressure).
From that perspective, everyone is ignorant about almost everything.
Or, put another way, everyone knows almost nothing.
So chill, it’s all good.
We’re all fools floating in infinity.
Even the greatest genius of all time knew an infinitesimal fraction of All That Can Be Known.
BUT, to learn that you’re ignorant about something you care about!
Well, here comes a wonder-full opportunity.
How can someone telling you that you’re ignorant make you a better person?
Someone throws the words at you like a well-aimed poison-tipped dart: “You’re ignorant.”
Pause. Do nothing. Take a deep, slow breath and let it go. You have choices.
If they’re right, you’ve received an invitation to:
1. Learn about the thing you’re ignorant about
2. Decide you don’t care enough about the thing to become informed about it…and move on with your life
Either way, the person who called you ignorant has done you a favour. Thank them and get on with your life.
What if someone calls you ignorant and they are WRONG?
Ah, now THIS is where things get interesting -and messy- for so many of us.
Many people mistake ‘knowing something’ for their identity (who they think they are). This that can lead to more-than-mild discomfort.
Someone challenging your truth can feel abrasive (sandpaper for your ego, anyone?). This is because you’re reacting to a perceived challenge to who you believe yourself to be. Rather than it just being someone having a different -even if wrong- perspective.
My advice would be to realise that you are not what you know, you are the one doing the knowing, and go on your merry way.
Do not argue with a fool for he will eventually bring you down to his level and then beat you with experience.
Mark Twain
Here are two options for you:
- Explain in a calm loving voice that you do in fact know what you’re talking about. Risky if they’re as wilfully ignorant as the donkey in the story below.
- Let it go and continue with your life, content and with no need to prove anything to anyone
Ignorance is bliss…depending on what you’re ignorant about
There are some things which, once known, cannot be unknown.
The beauty of ignorance is that it is a cozy blanket. When wrapped in ignorance, we’re padded from knowings which would blow our tiny minds like lightning through a lightbulb.
Ignorance is a gift from the divine. But it’s also a curse. When the blanket of ignorance cuts off air, light, and our ability to live lives of joy and wonder…that’s a problem.
Choose your ignorance wisely
You can’t know everything.
But you can know things important for your health, joy, purpose and what you came to this life to experience.
Our society has made us ignorant of critical things.
Filled our heads with entertainment, distraction and worry.
Emptied us of presence, genius, playfulness and spontaneity.
We only need to look us around to see the result.
Imagine if we’d been educated in:
- Meditation
- Yoga
- Breathwork
- Martial Arts
- Conscious Communication
- Sexual Empowerment
- Permaculture
- Regenerative agriculture
- Ancestral nourishment
- Life as a Ritual
- Plant medicine
- Nature as divinity and us as nature
- Trauma release and other somatic practices
- This list goes on and on…
The good news is: we have this moment!
Let’s choose our ignorance -and our knowledge- more wisely.
Takeaway Summary
We all know almost nothing.
We have a choice about what to remain ignorant of and what to gain knowledge of.
This is an important choice!
3 tips for a happy life of conscious ignorance
1. Someone calling you ignorant is not an insult…it’s an invitation
2. If they are right, you have a choice either to learn more or acknowledge are happy to remain ignorant in this area
3. If they are wrong you can try to prove it or let it go and save your energy for other things
I look forward to learning many more areas of my ignorance in this life.
Please share your favourite moments of realising your ignorance (and what you did in response).
May realising your ignorance be the invitation to choose your knowledge wisely.
With love
Nathan
Does any of this make sense to you? Love to have your thoughts. Either way, thank you for reading and I hope it has brought you something you needed today ?
I tend to agree on the definition of ignorance. For years now, I have simply thought to myself (or stated aloud) that I feel as if ignorance is simply not knowing. Additionally, I also feel like ignorance can potentially lead to knowledge on a subject matter.
For example, as a black man I’m ignorance of some of the cultures of the world. That said, I can ask questions (in a respectful manner, of course) and attempt to gain knowledge. Of course one must be willing to have such a conversation, which means one must possess a certain degree of courage to begin with.
All of that to say, one should be willing and vulnerable enough to entertain the possibility of being ignorant on SEVERAL fronts.
#TheEnd
Love your words here, Marlon. I agree that Courage is required to live from ignorance to knowledge with humility and grace. Thank you ??
There are definitely many things I ignored for a long time, knowing they should not be ignored. However, there is one thing I have never ignored and will never forgive anyone who does so: Those who get away with, “Ignorance is bliss!” I believe such ignorant belief is the source of many core problems in this life and planet:( Hope not many ignore this post; at least among those who spend the kind time to read it through till the end. Thank you for sharing your genuine heart and true mind, dear Nathan. Yours truly- Asli
Haha, it’s a crazy saying, though i do understand the motivation behind it. I also think it’s misplaced! Better to have knowledge of the important things than ignorance. Thank you for sharing and for being on this journey with me, Asli, I’m honoured by your presence and kind reflections. With love, always. Nathan
Hi Nathan. Thank you for posting this. It was a calming and also humorous read. It also made me slow down and think how much time we spend sometimes on arguing pointlessly just to try and make a point.
On a different note I have just received my signed ‘In The Shadows’ cd from you today.. so happy ? I can’t tell you how much I love ‘Slow It Down’ (well I probably have before). Thanks so much Nathan, with love and peace, David (Southampton, England) x
I’m so happy to hear that the CD arrived, thank you for your patience David!! And yes, good to remember that arguing pointlessly is…well, pointless ?. All the best and thank you for the support!
I am so happy that I have found your presence on the internet again! The topic of this article is so timely; I just recently had a social media post refused because I wrote that I was “globally ignorant” when I was thanking someone for posting a link to an online game of “Name that Country” called Globle. I hope all is well with you, and yours. Thank you, again, my favorite troubador!
Happy to be of service, and welcome back into my strange little world of curiosity and wonder ??