Pride (LJ Transfer. Man, I used to be optimistic.)

The first step to learning, to true understanding, is admitting that you know nothing.
It's easy to agree with that, when you've gotten used to really learning things. The scope of knowledge of the entirety of mankind could fit inside a cosmic marble.
Our genius is still limited, because we forget to remember never to be satisfied.





The man who learns only what others know is as ignorant as if he learns nothing.
Because how could we progress if everyone was satisfied? Where would innovation come from if everything was acceptable and there was no need for change?
We have to learn what others don't know, which means we have to start from scratch.
Once you begin to learn, it just snowballs. Once you have that momentum, you can create change.

It's just a little weird to encounter it at first. The knowledge that your words can suddenly affect, influence. The ability to see that your momentum has finally built into something formidable that makes people step back and think.
It isn't surprising, just different. When you expose people to the desire to adapt and to change, they respond. Go figure, I don't think anyone is happy with the current state of affairs.
If they are they've never known hardship.

But..when you have your momentum, it's easy to let it just die out of fear.
Between the desire and the spasm falls the shadow.

But is this a motivational speech or some random rambling?
I'm not sure, to be honest. I was reading some old letters that brought it about.

I guess the point is that we like to assume we know things. We like to be proud of our achievements, to be satisfied with what we are capable of...it is this way that growth becomes stagnant.
It's especially rampant in teenagers. In love, I thought I understood human nature. I, like thousands upon thousands of others, put trust in another human being.

But you see, trust is one thing...reliance and dependance are entirely other. I began to put more trust in this other human being whom I felt love for than I trusted God.
And that's where the folly starts. It becomes less necessary to think and to reason and to adapt when you're suddenly happy with how your life is heading.

In love, I did nothing. My music sat untouched on the piano, my academics were stagnant, my poetry was dead, my reading all but ceased.
And it is the nothing in the end that you regret when you realize that trusting a human more than God is idiocy.
Because humans are frail and fickle, they change their minds and they alter their feelings to match flaws and their own attempts at wisdom.

And you do exactly the same, once you assume you know and understand something.
I did. I haven't ever known pain like that, not before the crash and not since.

See, when you allow yourself pride and reflection on your knowledge and wisdom and abilities, you lift your spirits.
Problem is, you're building castles in the air, and no matter how beautiful they are...your foundation doesn't hold once reality exposes the buildings to gravity.
Everything crashes around your ears. Don't ever assume that you are wise, that you know people. You are a child.

I don't care how old you are or how much you've seen. There is not a human on this earth with the right to lord his or her wisdom over any others.
There is not a human on this earth with the right to boast of their many talents.
Eat your humble pie now, because if you wait until you're living in the flying castles, it hurts a lot worse. Trust me.

Pride will let you relax and waste your gifts, forgetting that there is always a greater pinnacle to strive for.
Chopin recognized this.
The sooner you do, the sooner you can quit being mediocre and wasting your life. Learning brings momentum gives influence creates the ability to change.
All once you overcome pride.

And at the end of the road? Simplicity, attainable once you have overcome all difficulties.

Real humility is not admitting your strengths and your weaknesses, it is admitting that your strengths are your weakness.
And that should be some nice food for thought.

-C


In short, if I were still stupider than I am, I should think myself at the apex of my career; yet I know how much I still lack, to reach perfection; I see it the more clearly now that I live only among first-rank artists and know what each one of them lacks. - Chopin