ruminations

Ruminations: Of blindness, bananas, humility, knowledge and growth.

One man’s meat is another man’s poison. (Shakespeare)

Known knowns,
Known unknowns,
Unknown unknowns.

(Words popularized by Donald Rumsfeld but originally from insurance industry)

Does a person blind from birth know that they lack the sense of sight?

Yes, if they live in a community with people who have the normal perception of sight. They will hear words like, shapes, colours, that they cannot begin to comprehend but can imagine based on what they hear or touch or smell or taste.

No, if they live in an isolated community of blind people who have never known the sense of sight. They will live their entire lives not knowing that there is such a sense and they may well have heightened senses of hearing, touch, smell and taste, but they will never know the difference between red and green. The difference between a red nectarine and a green pear. It may smell different, taste different, but they will never know that it also looks different.

Will they ever know that the rainbow occurs in the sky? They cannot see it, and it is beyond their other senses to perceive it as well, since they cannot touch, smell, and taste or hear it either!

My banana story:

I used to detest bananas. When I was young, my mother force-fed me bananas because “they’re good for you”. Bananas virtually everyday. I believed in the yuckiness of bananas. I much prefer crunchy and juicy fruits e.g. apples, to mushy fruits like banana. Maybe some of you may have the same loathing for broccoli! Just a taste and texture thing, you know? So, in this case, the banana is my mother’s meat, but my poison…and maybe broccoli is my meat but your poison.

When I first moved out, boy, the freedom of choice! I did my own grocery shopping and didn’t give banana a second glance.

But, the story doesn’t end there. I now like bananas! So then you may ask, why would I change my mind? On a whim? My tastebuds have not malfunctioned, but I reckon it is a matter of preferences and priorities.

I have known since young that bananas are nutritious, lots of potassium and other healthy stuff. That information was not the revelation that changed my worldview of the banana. No, it had always been drilled into my brain that bananas are good. However, knowing that fact in my mind but also knowing that my oral senses didn’t like the sensation of the banana, the nutritional value somehow didn’t appeal to the young me. My priorities definitely valued taste above nutrition.

Now, if you ask me whether I prefer apples or bananas, all things being equal, I will still pick an apple over a banana. My preferences have not changed, as nutritionally they are both still good.

The knowledge in my mind and my taste preferences have not changed, but my priorities have changed. I now place nutritional value above the pleasing taste and texture criteria. And as I broaden my diet to include bananas, it does not mean that I give up apples, and it does not mean that I must now eat bananas everyday (as advocated by my mother). It just means that I know why I choose to eat bananas. And to my pleasant surprise I find that bananas are not as icky as those from my childhood memories, which were coloured by prejudice. And I get fewer cramps in my feet now because of the added potassium in my diet. Maybe mother was right after all, and I am forced to admit it in this particular matter.

Though my process of discovering the joys of banana-eating was lengthier than most people, I have learned a lot of truth from this, about growing and accepting change, and finding out why I like or dislike something. Of comparing different priorities and ranking them. Of making choices based on my values, and evaluating whether the values that I place on the priorities are valid or not. Of understanding and accepting who I am, and why I choose certain things. And also realizing that I may not know everything and acknowledging that what I think I know may not always be cast in stone. Of continually striving to keep learning more about life and not be complacent in my ignorance.

In my opinion, humility is often sadly overlooked in our society. Yet, knowledge is quite prized in some circles, for example, at university. But can one acquire knowledge without humility? Most people don’t even think these values are connected.

I believe knowledge without humility leads to pride. And in our post-modern progressive society, there are many great advances in technology and various fields of endeavour, which gives us all a great sense of pride. In a good way, you will say, and I agree to a certain extent.

The fruits of our labour. The triumphs of human achievement.

However, a wise man once said that the more he learned, the more he realized he did not know.

Pride goes before a fall. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

There is so much more out there. The unknown unknowns.

Can we know the unknown? Is the truth out there? You might even discover that there are unknown knowns in your life. Things you thought you knew, but didn’t actually know. Like the meaning of love.

You may be like the blind man who ventures out of the blind community for the first time, encountering strange new things, ideas, concepts. Might even get healed and gain the sense of sight! So this thing about growing in life, it’s just a matter of priorities, isn’t it?

By the way, some things that the writer enjoys are watching soccer, learning, talking to God, music, talking about the meaning of life with truth-seekers, sleeping, testing the truth in the Bible, star-gazing and eating. But not in that order of priority, of course.