In the end I think that I find people who believe themselves to be very clever rather boring.  Why?  Not because I do not admire intelligence and strive for it – no! – but because I cannot comprehend how you get to a point where you are not aware of how much more there is to know and learn.  Knowledge gives you a humbling sense of how little one understands in the wider scheme of things.  This awareness surely humbles the brash self confidence of cleverness?

 

So – what would you like to discover more about?  The history of farming?  Your family genealogy? Mediaeval religion? Italian painting?  Your faith, even?

 

Here is a random list of ten things I simply don’t understand ……

1.      Why money accumulates interests in a bank.

2.      What the purpose of dreams is.

3.      What the secret of learning languages might be.

4.      Why so many people are anti European.

5.      How one would go about composing a piece of music for a full orchestra.

6.      How to stop feeling anxious.

7.      How to play Sudoku.

8.      Understand why the Reformation happened.

9.      Knowing more about Islam and Hinduism.

10.   How to make everybody happy all of the time.

 

And the list could go on and on and on.  I wonder what your list might look like – and having confessed these ‘gaps’ – will it make any difference – will we act upon it?

 

Knowing the limitations of our knowledge is a good starting point for learning.