I hestitated putting this post under the title of Beauty (Pt. 5). First, I was afraid people wouldn’t read it because they’re sick of me talking about beauty. Second, I wasn’t sure if it would fit in this series. But the more I thought about it, this post belongs in the Beauty series. So, what am I talking about?
Ideas. The intellect. The mind. The soul. They all go together.
A couple months ago, I was talking to a friend about the difference between knowledge and understanding. We talked about how we love to learn, but we aren’t always sure what it is we are learning. We talked about how easy it is to “know” something, but how difficult it is to “understand” or “comprehend” or “have experience of the things learned.” Wisdom is certainly different than knowledge. Experiencing something is certainly different than knowing some facts about some thing. I believe much of our intellect, especially in the information age, is used in the process of exposure. We’re exposed to ideas. We’re exposed to content. We’re exposed to facts. But it takes a special person to take those exposures, those facts, that content, and actually connect the dots. It takes a certain amount of musing and reflection before we can actually understand or comprehend what we are learning.
And finally, weeks, months, or years later, that learning will become a part of us. And we will share it.
Omer Redden 