That phrase, “I don’t know,” is becoming my old-age mantra as an 84-year-old who turns 85 in just a few more months. Unlike the “Know-it-all” teen and young adult years, I continue to feel that “I don’t know” about more and more in life! 🙂
Like many my age, this old man walks into a room and asks himself, “What did I come in here for?” “I don’t know.” Then a new pain comes in a different part of my body or some other part is not functioning properly. Why? “I don’t know.” Where did I put that? “I don’t know.” Is the doctor appointment tomorrow or next week? “I don’t know.” What am I having for dinner? “I don’t know.” 🙂
Followed by deeper thoughts, like when am I going to die? “I don’t know.” When should I move to a Senior Adult home? “I don’t know.” Why did half of my home country vote for a lying, immoral, convicted criminal to be their president? “I don’t know.”
With all of these doubts and multiple health problems I have now, why am I still happy? “I don’t know.” Maybe it is because of this mantra of accepting that in life there is so much that “I don’t know.” 🙂
Socrates famously observed, “I know one thing, that I know nothing.”
He also said, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
And finally he said, “The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less”
🙂
¡Pura Vida!
A Related earlier Post: Merton’s Prayer of Abandonment
Aren’t you glad that I don’t get philosophical too often? 🙂 Now back to nature!
