The View from a Drawbridge

Someone said to me recently, “Life is for learning.” Very true, my friend. The common thread that flows through every life experience is the opportunity to increase your knowledge, should you choose to accept it.

The ability to absorb information– what a gift! Even if it’s just your basic, “Maybe I should never stick my hand in a fire again,” it is more valuable than gold. On a fundamental level it is how we survive. Even plants know to turn toward the sun. As we grow more sophisticated, it helps us strive to become our highest self.

There are people out there who take a hostile stance when it comes to knowledge. They try to make intellectual a dirty word. They don’t want you to think, or worse, they prefer to tell you what to think.

In the spiritual realm, these include those religious groups that strongly discourage you from questioning anything. They give you a very clear cut set of beliefs, and they expect you to strictly adhere to their dogma. Your compliance will make you one of the chosen ones. Any deviation relegates you to an eternity of suffering of one form or another. To these people I say that we were given a brain, so I assume we were expected to use it.

In politics, ignorance seems to be the default position these days, but especially avoid those parties that want to keep you in a state of fear. Fear makes you easy to manipulate. But the more you know about something, the less you fear it. So it is in their best interest to get you to turn away from knowledge. They especially hate science. Heaven forfend we believe the results of reasoned research! That might mean we have to do something! Much easier to bury our heads in the sand and maintain the status quo. (The status quo that they want to maintain, anyway.)

In relationships, the most toxic ones are those where your partner expects you to shut up and do what you’re told. They are the men who want to keep the little woman at home, and the women, too, who rule with an iron fist. Also avoid those people who are so comfortable in their routines that if a loved one wants to take up a new interest, they strongly discourage it. A truly loving individual will not only delight when you spread your wings, but he or she will help you to fly.

Grab every opportunity to learn. Value education, but also take something away from every experience you have, even the negative ones. They, too, have something to teach you. Every person who crosses your path is a teacher as well. Actively pursue knowledge. Be a sponge. Read everything you can get your hands on. Exercise your curiosity. Stick your head below the surface, but don’t leave it in the sand.

Seek. Inquire. Delve. Share. Expand. Take advantage of this gift we have been given, and question any person or group that attempts to discourage you from doing so. Knowledge really is power.

[Image credit: fikapdx.com]