{"id":1644,"date":"2021-07-21T12:51:29","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T16:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/?p=1644"},"modified":"2021-07-21T12:51:29","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T16:51:29","slug":"i-am-still-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/i-am-still-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"“I Am Still Learning”"},"content":{"rendered":"


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People who are utterly and completely sure of themselves confound me-
\nwhether it be about theology, Godde, politics, history, science… or any discipline.
\nWhat if more information becomes available?
\nWhat if that information contradicts one’s assumptions?
\nWhat if differing perspectives challenge old facts?
\nWhat if we need to acknowledge two conflicting truths exist at the same time?<\/p>\n

Can you imagine how fun, exciting, scary, and wonderful that would be?<\/p>\n

When I star gaze, especially when I am alone, listening to a cacophony of insects flutter and chirp and water splashing over stones in the nearby creek… I experience a bone deep connection with all that \u00a0is and was and will come. I am flush with the awareness that what \u00a0I do not<\/em> know is so much greater than I do<\/em> know. Scholars of every discipline only grapple with the edges knowledge. The Mystery is greater than our ability to comprehend in its entirety. Is it possible for the finite can comprehend the infinite?<\/p>\n

Not that I want to stop trying to understand more deeply, but the older I get the more in sync I am with Michelangelo who, at considerable age of 87, \u00a0said, “I am still learning.”<\/p>\n

There is something essential in accepting both our desire and our limitations in the search for truth. And, if we are honest, the moment we claim to possess an absolute truth, some sneaky contradiction up-ends it. \u00a0If we are honest.
\nIt’s why I am suspicious of politicians and preachers who claim absolute fealty to one truth or one idea and reject ideas and \u00a0information that contradict. I am suspicious when they impose circular thinking on their followers \u00a0and reject critical examination of their ‘truth’.<\/p>\n

Questions are one of the beginning points of human development. Who hasn’t spent time with a toddler’s incessant questioning? \u00a0There is nothing like the pummeling one takes from a two year old’s “What’s that?” and “Why?” – that push us to the limits of our ability to explain.
\nIn the best of all worlds we never stop asking those profoundly human questions.
\nIn the best of all worlds, we never stop growing in our quest to understand ourselves and the world around us.
\nIn the best of all worlds, \u00a0answers \u00a0become more and more complex and less and less absolute.<\/p>\n

What if we could wrap our minds around the idea that contradictory things can be true? \u00a0What if, \u00a0rather than clinging to absolutes, we find other ways to confront our fear of the unknown?
\nWhat if the fear of the unknown is an invitation to unending questions?
\nWhat if \u00a0our questions don’t lead us absolute answers but \u00a0to ever deepening questions?
\nWhat if we seek \u00a0answers not as fixed points but as open doors?<\/p>\n

What if we all admit that we are still learning?
\nWhat if a collective will to question made change less threatening?
\nWhat if, in our embrace of uncertainty, we became more and more human?<\/p>\n

I wonder.
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People who are utterly and completely sure of themselves confound me- whether it be about theology, Godde, politics, history, science… or any discipline. What if more information becomes available? What if that information contradicts one’s assumptions? What if differing perspectives challenge old facts? What if we need to acknowledge two conflicting truths exist at the … Continue reading “I Am Still Learning”<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,19,1,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1644"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1644"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1652,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1644\/revisions\/1652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}