It was in the 8th grade when I started to feel like nobody knows anything about everything. I was in science class, learning about cell parts. The mitochondrion, the endoplasmic reticulum, the nucleus, blah blah blah, and the atom: the smallest part, directly translated as the uncuttable. But then people realized that there were subatomic parts, so the atom was divisible after all right? Hmmmm so I raised my hand and asked…
“What about the space between the subatomic particles… the quarks? Isn’t that made up of something? And then what about the space between those things? What is that? No matter how small you go, isn’t there always some space between those things that also needs to be made up of stuff?”
Later, while waiting to see the principal, I came to the conclusion that no really knows anything about anything, we just act like we do because it is more comforting that admitting we know nothing. There used to be 3 dimensions, now there are possibly 11, but who knows? Hey, lets go out for drinks.
The more you learn, the more you realize that everything is not as it seems and it is all an illusion anyway. And I am not only taking about science, but all things. What is history besides some people’s account on a happening? And if 100 people all see the same event, you will still have 100 variations of what took place. How can there be any “facts” about anything? Yeah, maybe math is the universal language, but who remembers anything about math? “Good to see you! Let’s make a common denominator out of this interaction.”
I believe Socrates expressed it best when he said… wait…or was it really Plato? Who knows? All I know is that one of those guys said that all he knew was that all he knew was nothing. So how to you go about teaching anything to your children with any confidence? Maybe life is not about the answers, but the questions? Maybe I should encourage The Munch to live an inquisitive life rather than a hubris existence of thinking she ever really knows anything for sure. Or maybe I will have the most annoying kid in the world who won’t stop asking “why…?”
“Why do I have no clothes on, yet one sock?”
