Thursday, January 4, 2007
my own uncertainty principle
Many bloggers sound very sure of themselves. They make statements about national events, religious ideas, political theories, on and on, seemingly without any hesitation. I often know what rings true or comfortable to me but I rarely know something is certainly true. This is partly a reaction to growing up with dogmatic academician parents who knew (or said they knew) everything beyond a shadow of their own doubt. I still physically cringe at a particular tone of voice which inevitably carries words that dismissively cite other opinions.

In this space I try to ask many questions and to write with a degree of assurance yet without dogmatic certitude. The more I read and think, the more I am convinced that there are very few certainties. And I am more and more convinced about the importance of civility and kindness, which is a slightly different subject although civility allows one to elicit and thereby hear and learn from other people's opinions and ideas. It's the ideas I haven't thought of that quite fascinate me now. Maybe I've lived with my own thoughts and ideas so long that I want to try others' out. Maybe it's curiosity about how many roads you can take to get to the same places (happiness, contentment, etc.). I don't know. What about you?

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