Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Thinking outside the box is a strange way to phrase our perception of thought. How do we stretch the imagination or broaden the mind? It seems like if we can sense the phenomena of mind stretching, we already know at some level there is limitlessness within us, and we are deceiving ourselves. Why would anything be a stretch for the mind if we couldn’t perceive some sort of limitlessness within?
I want to know what beyond a shadow of doubt means. I want to know what open-mindedness is and what keeps it closed? If you sit down with these ideas for a moment, you’ll puzzle yourself. Did you catch that? – puzzle yourself. How can we know we are confused if at some strange level we weren’t perfectly clear?
When I play the piano or the organ, I know when I mess up, and the knowing is immediate as the piece is being played. Even when I don’t know the piece all that well, I know I’m messing it up. How do I know I’m erring if I don’t already know the perfect version of the music at a level that eludes me? It begs the question, how do we know that we know and how do we know that we don’t know?
My friend Elaine once said, “I know I’m not very smart, but….” This woman can play all of the hymns in all 12 keys, and can transpose any score AT SIGHT. And she says she’s not smart. She’s deceiving herself. I wish I could figure out why we have this perception of open and close mindedness or that we know we can “stretch” the imagination or become smarter. No-one seems to wonder how we know that something is a stretch if we don’t already know infinity, genius, or everything there is to know at some level within our spirit.