I have always thought we ought to pursue knowledge and information. The more we know, the better off we are and that the smarter we will be. It will take me more than forty-five years to discover just the opposite. It will be one of the greatest paradoxes that I shall learn to live with. That is, the less we know, the better off we are.
There is a saying in Chinese – “The frog in the well knows nothing of the great ocean.” (井底之蛙). It is a derogatory expression to mock someone that lives an isolated life. Smugly, we think this person is missing out. Really?
I have wondered about the people that lived hundreds of years ago – before television, before the radio, and before the printed press. Where did they get their news? The most they could travel on any given day was probably just down the hill. If they happened to live in a valley surrounded by mountain ranges or separated by a large body of water, their world would probably be confined to a one-mile radius. And I am almost certain they are no less happy than the happiest person today.
The frog in the well knows nothing of the great ocean…and for that, it is absolutely content.
And for that I am envious.
I am a dreamer, and I dream up big ideas. I have so many ideas that I have to hold back from sharing them lest I overwhelm and alienate even the closest of friends. I had dreamed up many things in my head only to find out someone else already had similar ideas. Instead of pursuing that dream, I would pull back and say…someone else has done it, why bother? I wonder what would have happened if I had never found out about the others? What if I simply chart the course and pursue my dream?
Knowing stopped me. Knowing intimidated me. Knowing did not empower me.
Right before the summer, I was anxiously looking to get my preteens some books to read. As a parent, the threat of a free summer combined with the lure of the internet was just too great. I typed “bestseller” on the search box of Amazon as I intended to find popular books for my kids to read. My darling brats would only read bestsellers. Not just any best sellers, but bestsellers that were written within the past year. As to books written before they were born, my kids would think they fall under the “classic” category.
I didn’t specify “bestsellers for kids,” so the search came back with a title that baffled me. The book is called “Proof of Heaven” written by a neurosurgeon named Eben Alexander. I went on to read some of the five-star reviews and was instantly intrigued. I looked for the cheapest copy to buy and settled with a used version for $2. I eagerly waited for this book to arrive.
Dr. Eben Alexandar had a rare illness that put him in a coma for 7 days. While his family hung onto the slim hope of his recovery, his spirit traveled to another dimension, just like many that had experienced near-death experiences. As a neurosurgeon, he had heard stories of this kind often, and he explained it away as “overstimulated brain activities.” However, when it was him that left his body and entered into another realm, he said, “This place I’d suddenly found myself in was completely real.” He described his out-of-body experiences in vivid, colorful details. And he wrote something that was so otherworldly-ly profound.
“Just as most of ordinary life holds too much information for us to take in at once and still get anything done, being excessively conscious of the worlds beyond the here and now would slow down our progress even more. If we knew too much of the spiritual realm now, then navigating our lives on earth would be an even greater challenge than it already is.”
That is why we know so little, if at all, about life beyond our earthly existence. That is why the only knowledge we have about the afterlife is only recorded in a few pages of the Holy Book. There is so much about the universe we don’t know, and I’d even say, it’s impossible for us to know. Can we imagine guinea pigs trying to understand our technology, our arts, and our sciences? In other words, knowing would slow down our progress. Knowing would prevent us from living a productive life while on earth.
When God created Adam and Eve and put them in charge of the Garden of Eden, He explicitly told these two NOT to eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Why? Because if they ate of it, they would know right from wrong. And what is wrong with knowing? Before Eve took a bite of the forbidden fruit, there was only GOODNESS in the world. Their disobedience cracked open the gate of evil and brought a curse upon them. The knowledge of evil shamed them and left them out of God’s perfect will. Stunned and wordless, they hung their heads as they walked out of the Garden.
I believe the internet has brought a curse upon us: information. There is just too much of it. With a few clicks of the mouse or a few swipes of the finger, our machines subserviently serve up knowledge in an instant. Our eyes and our brains are trained to accept every word as true as long as it’s typed and from a screen.
I will later explain what is wrong with information overload.
My husband is probably one of the few people that are keeping Barnes & Noble in business. Every time he stops by the bookstore, he will pay the full price for the books that interest him. The latest book he bought is called “The Art of Thinking Clearly” by Rolf Dobellis. (It cost $15.99, and I paid $2 for “Proof of Heaven”!)
The author’s sense of humor is what makes this book palatable. Who can absorb 350 pages of 99 common thinking errors? I am only up to number 11. It says,
“We create a picture of the world using the examples that most easily come to mind. This is idiotic, of course, because in reality, things don’t happen more frequently just because we can conceive of them more easily.”
The author called it the “Availability Bias.”
I can relate. I once thought the plane I was on might crash. We hit unpleasant turbulence which had my stomach tied up in knots. Fear gripped me. I tried to figure out how to send an e-mail from the plane to the earth with all of our passwords…just in case our whole family ends up at the bottom of the sea. Why did I have such an irrational thought? Because once the aircraft started to bob up and down, what came to my mind first were incidents of all the previous major plane crashes.
Because of it, the author said that we travel through life with an incorrect risk map in our heads. It is true that 95% of the things we worry about WILL NOT happen.
Sometimes being a big mouth, I forget the importance of sharing information on the need-to-know basis. It is neither deliberate concealment nor deception. It is about protecting others so that they do not get overwhelmed or distracted by the information they have no business of knowing. Unnecessary information can paralyze us into inaction and hinder us from moving forward.
Mark out your territory carefully and keep it manageable. Select your media source wisely and keep it simple. We don’t need to read the same story from 10 different news outlets. You are not narrow-minded. You are deciding to keep the clutter out so you may gain the mental space to breathe more easily and to think more clearly.
That is the beauty of not knowing.
Speaking of ideas, I had wanted to invent these things:
1 – Disposable facial mask to wear in the fitting room, so our makeup doesn’t rub off on the clothes we have no intention of buying.
2 – a heat-generating apparatus with a temperature sensor that when it is placed inside a tub of water, will warm up the water to a pre-set temperature. It will then beep and shut off the warmer just in time for the baby to take the hot bath. I had nearly scorched my kids a few times while bathing them when they were infants and toddlers. I consulted with a chemical engineer and learned that such a “heating ball” would not be feasible. And it will definitely not cost under $25.