Process pt. 10 - Wisdom: To Reflect

“Don’t gain the world and lose your soul;

Wisdom is better than silver and gold.” -Bob Marley

So what is this Those Who Wonder nonsense? I would like to jumpstart a community of those who are curious. In order to gain a better understanding of whatever it is the curiosity is about (sports, history, film, music, religion, etc.), people should have the opportunity to create something to 1) improve their understanding, 2) teach others about their findings and 3) instill curiosity in others.

This could be an online forum, blogging, podcasting, creating a documentary, whatever. Find those who wonder about the same thing, or simply those who wonder about stuff just as intensely as you do.

The goal is to gain wisdom and find joy in the process. When we objectively understand new things, we should reflect on what those new things mean to us. How should this newfound information impact the way I live and view the world? This should be communal.

The process of sharing your ideas is part of reflection. This is our end goal for wisdom. The goal should not be to be the “smartest person in the room.” That is pointless and egotistical and a truly wise person would know otherwise.

The point is to learn for learning’s sake about whatever it is you want to learn about, tell it to a friend, and talk about it. This reflection will bring wisdom. Not only this, but the reflection should bring improvement on life.

If we are working to understand the Way, then we are working to understand truth. If we are understanding truth, then our life should somehow be improving. If our life is not improving, we are not finding truth.

Something we should avoid with all of our ability is nihilism. We should not believe that all of everything is for nothing. We are seeking wisdom to improve our days. There is a purpose.

Even if the wisdom brings about the darkness of truth, we can learn from it to improve ourselves and our world. We should gain a better understanding of how the world works so we can make the world a better place. This should also remain objective, however: “Objectivity and justice have nothing to do with one another” (Friedrich Nietzsche).

If objectivity remains, freedom of speech can be preserved. Freedom of speech will allow for objectively incorrect ideas to be brought into the light and shown for what they are: incorrect.

Censoring ideas shows a lack of trust in objectivity and freedom of speech. If, however, one is refusing to be objective, this person is not truly one of those who wonder. One is only trying to reinforce one’s preexisting beliefs. There must be a certain level of expectation.

The expectation is not to convince others to think the same things as you, but rather encourage others to want to understand the truth as much as you do.

If you are interested in this concept, please let me know. I have zero expectations for this, to be honest. I will be blogging and podcasting for fun. That’s what this is: fun. Rather than watch Netflix every night, I’ll read and blog for a night or two. If that seems fun to you, hit me up. If not, all good! Enjoy your ignorance, you swine (just kidding, I hope you the best).

-Sean Stevenson