Earlier this week, while on a short lunch break, I went with my fam to a local eatery to grab a quick salad before going back to finish the second half of my day. Having only a few choices in the small hamlet in which we live, we settled on a spot that served sandwiches and salads. I must comment that the little bistro has made great use of their space allowing ample room between tables. Still, because of the size of the place, you can generally hear what the other diners are discussing if they speak with any volume at all.
We seated ourselves, were greeted by the server and were waiting for our drinks when a group of three guests entered and occupied the table beside us. Apparently, they worked for the same company as they were all wearing matching pants and shirts. Almost immediately, one of the gentlemen began talking loudly and sharing “statistics” about the current state of health in the United States.
One of the members of my party, an extremely intelligent twenty-one-year-old, asked me, “Did you hear what he just said?” I said, “Of course, I did.” He knew the answer before he had asked. As a writer, I always watch people and casually eavesdrop on their conversations to pick up dialect and eccentricities that will eventually form the characters I create. But, even if I didn’t do that, I would have still heard him…he was LOUD. Finally, my friend, responded, “His information is all wrong.” I agreed, but replied, “Ignorance is bliss.” To which my young friend questioned, “Is it?”
That “It is?” statement from lunch kept bugging me. I had always been told that ignorance was bliss and just accepted it to be fact, but now it seemed ignorant (pardon the pun.) So, I decided to research the origin of this platitude.
To my surprise ignorance is bliss is only a small portion of a line from a poem by Thomas Gray called “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eaton College” written in 1742. The whole quote reads, “Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.” The line had been cherry picked! I had been duped into believing a lie my entire life!
Now, growing up in small town in eastern North Carolina, I am no stranger to the art of “cherry picking” to validate a point. People skim over a news story and pick out a fact here and a fact there until the story is barely truthful when it is retold. People also collect bits and pieces of things they have overheard and retell it and pass it along until it is about as accurate as a game of Telephone. People in the South are notorious for doing it with scripture to validate their point, knowing full well that if you read what was before and after, it would change the meaning entirely.
Taking words out of context is one of my biggest pet peeves because it is deceptive. Without all of the words and facts, one cannot reach a truly informed decision. That brings us back to the full meaning of the line in Gray’s poem. This statement that has been so widely misused should have been translated, “Ignorance seems to be bliss to those who refuse wisdom.”
I have said all of this, to reach the point in today’s blog. We are living in a society riddled with false information, half-truths and outright lies sometimes. We, as humans, should be ever evolving, growing and learning. I encourage you to become a free thinker. Research and fact check everything instead of immediately accepting what you are being told is completely accurate. Form your own conclusions based on what you discover. By doing this, you will open yourself to ideas and people you may have never known before. You will learn beautiful things about different cultures. You will grow from your experiences and your empathy for others, especially those who have faced different struggles than your own, will grow. You will help to weave a stronger fabric of brotherhood that will bring us closer together as a human race. You will become a better version of yourself. You and those whose lives you touch will grow in power because KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, and knowledge is also the enemy of ignorance.
So, I challenge you today to grow through knowledge, break old thought patterns by learning new ways of thinking and doing. Open your heart, soul and mind to the infinite possibilities that are out there for you. Go out there and be the best human you can be. You’ve got this!
Health, happiness and good vibes to all.
