You Might Want to Stay Ignorant

Inquiring Mind, or Wise Heart:

"Inquiring Minds Want to Know." A few years back that was the advertising slogan for a tabloid newspaper. It is also an accurate observation. It is healthy to want to know, to grow in understanding, and to gain a better command of the world around us and how it works. In the Western world, we speak of knowledge as being power. Indeed in this digital age, some of the most successful businesses deal in nothing but information, knowledge, data. Those who can successfully tap into that natural human tendency to quest to know more, find that knowledge is wealth. Sometimes, though, knowledge isn't a good thing. I've seen situations when: Knowledge is pain. Knowledge is corrupting. Knowledge is guilt. or, Knowledge is maddening. Some people-groups tend to live with a view of knowledge that is far different than mine, as a senior American. They aren't nearly as open, and they respect the closed-ness of others. Perhaps in those cultures, inquiring minds still want to know, but I see a realization there that says, "Wise hearts care enough to leave it alone. Many of us are so connected that our lives are like a reality TV show, where cameras are on us 24/7. We don't eat without posting a picture of our food. Every move we make leaves a digital footprint and often a tweeted prediction. The most intimate details of life are dumped out before millions like breadcrumbs thrown to pigeons in a park. On the other end of those feeds are those who become annoyed, even indignant, when they aren't fed. Some of us are old enough to remember when people would make major trips without ever calling back home. My wife and I carried out a courtship largely through the US Postal Service. I have noticed that as we have more, cheaper, and faster means of passing on information that the demand--and I mean that in its most demanding sense--to know more has increased. "Minds addicted to knowledge demand to know," and they will make you pay if you don't feed them. I'm not suggesting that you throw your iPhone away, or cancel your Twitter account. I am suggesting that perhaps we ought to think more and know less. The book of Proverbs speaks of discretion, the quality of behaving or speaking in such a way as to avoid causing offense or revealing private information. In 1:4 discretion--the ability to make proper decisions--is a goal of the book. Discretion guards a person (2:11). 11:12 speaks of an aspect of discretion, " a man of understanding keeps silent." (See also 11:22) Instead of being so eager to know the latest, let's try to understand what we already know. Let's create some space between the deed done, or the word said, and its announcement to the world. Let's exercise some discretion. Let's emphasize wisdom in our hearts. It's STTA.