I start this blog (which for the record, was supposed to be published last month), with a quote I think many Americans are feeling at the present moment:

“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance” – Confucius

I have struggled to figure out what to write about, which is one of the reasons I have been putting this blog off. I do not write fluff or half-hearted jargon. There’s enough of that on social media, in daily advertising, and the laundry list goes on. I was struck, however, by a recent moment with my family that shifted my whole perspective on knowledge and learning.

Two Saturdays ago, I took my grandma, her friend Dan. and my mother for lunch and a tour of Detroit. We were all looking forward to the day, and lunch at Vicente’s went off without a hitch. We had a lively discussion, between figuring out where my uncle (who has Down Syndrome) would live next year, to my activity with DXF and Challenge Detroit. Then the inevitable came up: the election. While my family was equally shocked and dismayed, it lead us to a larger topic of world events. I get much of my natural curiosity from my mother. It is an undying urge to question, ponder, and learn more about the world around us.

While the exact question she asked escapes my memory, the answer was something that to me was common knowledge. I took pause in that moment, but communicated my response calmly and respectfully. Yet I realized I have not always responded that way to natural curiosity, to a genuine desire to learn. No, many times I have in fact shamed the person for their lack of knowledge. This initially filled me with regret. While my mother and I differ on knowledge bases from our differing life experiences, she is no more or less intelligent than I am. Yet I began to recount in my mind countless times in my childhood, where my father or I openly ridiculed her for lack of what we considered common knowledge.

I started to understand why as humans age, their natural curiosity slips away, a relic of a relatively carefree childhood. People fear being the least intelligent, most ill-informed individual in the room. They might disengage from socializing or open dialogue because they see ridicule as inevitable. There are certainly reasons for gaps in education and information. The more I learn about those gaps, the more I realize more times than not, it is often out of an individuals’ control. That, or the information is not pertinent to them, and in most circumstances and circles can go happily about their lives without it.

Is there a lack in the genuine thirst and pursuit of knowledge? Since the advent of the internet, I would argue the opposite. Yet there is so much information available at any given moment, disseminating fact from fiction (with no clear system to do so) sets all of us up for failure. Bubbles boil in their own self-righteous rumble until they pop! At that point, the divide is set and is much more difficult to bridge, instead of communicating openly about important issues and opinions. Yes, I said opinions, because while we know they may not be true, if shouted loud enough, they can seem more powerful than fact.

I am a believer that knowledge and justice prevails, but holding onto that belief has grown harder. Yet I remember no person, no organization, no value is worth holding onto if you never have to fight for it. I have also largely considered myself a pacifist. I realize this was less a choice, and more an unawareness of my privilege and power to affect change in society. It is easy to pretend I am a straight white male, while ignoring privileged benefits and a deeper secret that I hold. It is much harder to stand in the light as a gay man in a African-American city, seeing my privilege, identity intersections, and trying to figure out what that means to me and how to proceed moving forward. This, among many other things, I do not know. I have no clear answer. It has yet to escape my mind, and rightfully so.

While there is much I am figuring out, I will move forward. I will find common ground. I will reach out to those that have knowledge in areas I am lacking. I will be unafraid to ask the tough questions, make mistakes, unintentionally offend, and trade ignorance for knowledge. I can confidently do this now, knowing that never again will I openly ridicule another human’s ignorance. If I am ridiculed for my ignorance, I will be happy to calmly explain my feelings and suggest a more respectful future route for enlightening dialogue. It truly is easy to ridicule ignorance, to shut others down for disrespectful beliefs, and to fail to connect as humans and find common ground. If we fail to do that, the world will be a much darker, more divided place than we could ever visualize. However, if we open our minds to share our knowledge, share our struggles, share the most vulnerable parts of our humanity, I believe there is nothing that is truly impossible in the scope of human endeavor.