Knowing: we have to know everything. Everything must be known. If something is known then something else is waiting to be known. The chase of knowing is relentless. If it is not space it is the oceans that must be known. Nothing can be left unexplored.

Behind this thinking of knowing everything, is a mentality so pervasive that to think anything else seems ignorant and stupid. Knowing is an unstoppable juggernaut. It mows down any alternative in its way. Reason is unassailable. Why would you not want to advance medical knowledge? Why would you not want to know the world is round rather than flat? To think otherwise creates prejudice and hatred.

People 100 years ago would marvel at the improvment of medical science. Longevity of life, quickness to heal, and the alleviation of pain. We feel sorry for those people 100 years ago who had to suffer so much. Presumably in a 100 years time medicine will be vastly different. We would marvel at the advances. Those people living in the 22nd Century will look back at us and feel sorry for us that we didn’t have the advances that they have.

We live longer but for what? Our bodies and minds have become stretched out to accomodate the extra years medical advances have allowed us to live. Is this better? Is the quality of our lives better? Are our bodies and minds upto the job of living another 20 years?  A lot of us are still dying naturally in out 40s, 50s, and 60s. Some bodies are good, but the mind has gone and vice versa. To look at the beauty of a flower in the moment is not good enough. Its origins and how it works must be known. It has to photographed and recorded.

For a moment imagine a world where knowing is stopped for a year. It is almost impossible to think of. A world where nothing more was recorded, nothing more researched, nothing more investigated, nothing more known. There would be so much more time! More time to think. More time to consolidate. More time to reflect. More time to spend in the moment. More time to look around and see where we are. More time to see where we could go.

A balance between knowing and being in the moment of not knowing is a lofty ambition.
Maybe one day we might have the time to consider it?

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2017
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Disclaimer:This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique