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“More and more I’ve become convinced that the great treasure to possess is the unknown.”
P. L. Travers
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Ok. We spend a lot of time in today’s world discussing a couple of things:
– Wealth:
accumulation and what is too much, who deserves what and what is valuable
It is natural to want to have a ‘treasure chest.’ And it is natural to look at other people’s treasures.
– Measurable outcomes:
objectives, milestones, tangible proof points
It is natural that in a world where pretty much everything seems in flux that we want to have some things that are tangible to measure progress and ‘what is.’
I begin there to suggest maybe because we are so obsessed with those things we over look that maybe the greatest treasure we possess is the unknown.
Uhm.
The unknown?
What could be … and what will be.
In other words – possibilities (not certainties).
I know. I know.
That is crazy talk.
Ok. Maybe it is a crazy thought.
How can something that isn’t real <yet> or something that you can’t articulate or hold or show be the greatest treasure?
This kind of suggests that curiosity is a valuable characteristic <not necessarily actual knowledge>.
This kind of suggests is what you don’t know is more valuable than what you do know.
This kind of suggests the highest value, and valued, things in Life aren’t what you currently have but something that could be presented to you n the future.
Regardless.
I imagine there has to be some balance (or at least proportional) between pragmatism and possibilities and between curiosity & knowledge <unknown and known>
That said. Within that balance, the liminal space or maybe the space between here and there I also would suggest resides a some sense of courage. Courage to accept the unknown, i.e., that there is nothing but this uncomfortable space called ‘the unknown’ <and some hope that something will be known at some point> and yet you can accept at some point that all is lost … and yet you forge on.
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“Nothing is lost if one has the courage to proclaim that all is lost and we must begin anew.”
Cortázar
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Yes.
I know.
It is quite possible I am making unknown sound daunting and with some taint of being lost or, worse, being nowhere, but in that possibility resides something. Something like … the bliss found in the unknown and the search and discovery of things yet to be known, uhm, possibilities.
Yes.
Yes.
I understand that the point of the quote isn’t really about residing in a world where one is completed blanketed in unknown but rather that there is a treasure to be found in things yet to be learned and explored and experienced. But I purposefully put an edge on the thought to make a point.
The point is that we put a really high value on ‘known’ in today’s world.
How much you know.
How much people can see what you know.
This means that we put a really high negative price toward what is unknown in today’s world. We make it clearly a personal deficiency or a ‘less than’ feature and often suggest unknown makes a person flawed in some way.
And both of those things are true from a societal judgement perspective.
Society does not make it easy to embrace unknown as a treasure.
Therefore to choose to think of unknown as a great treasure to possess you need to be prepared to often walk the path alone with many people pointing fingers at you <wagging usually> and many others deciding that you have failed in some way.
It is not failure. It is a choice.
A choice to believe that the Unknown is a treasure.
Ponder.