Episode 18 ... Know It All - Good News and Better News

With the aid of some blues piano, Cring explains the power of knocking in the pursuit of knowing.

TRANSCRIPT

Oh, the games people play now

Every night and every day, now

Never meanin’ what they say, now

And never sayin’ what they mean.

“Knowledge is power.”

If you make this statement in a room full of educators, instructors or even parents, you get a rousing burst of applause. But let me ask a question. If knowledge is power, why don’t bookworms rule the world?

Here’s the theory we put forth: if you read books, you expand your mind with all sorts of information that will come in handy in dealing with your life.

But the truth of the matter is, knowledge doesn’t fuel our lives. Humor, perseverance, flexibility, gentleness, kindness, questioning and wonder—these are the things that take us from one place to another.

Otherwise we start playing games.

And you know we have this story in the Good Book about a creature who really believed in knowledge. Matter of fact, he believed in it so much that he tried to convince a woman that she was being cheated out of her proper place, and was being ignored and disrespected by having a piece of knowledge held away from her. It sounded really good.

It always does.

How much do we need to consider our motivation when choosing our pursuit? Can you really say, “I want to play on the football team because I want to win the state championship?”

Once again, that’ll get applause in the locker room, but it does not do much to block, tackle, pass, catch and kick in the game. We seem much more excited about the pursuit which takes us to our desired conclusion instead of finding a way to make the pursuit itself the source of joy and contentment.

“God knows that if you eat this fruit, Eve, you will become as wise as Him.”

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You know, it wasn’t exactly a lie. It just failed to color in the dark clouds gathering on the horizon.

People walkin’ up to ya’

Singin’ Glory Hallelujah

And they wanna sock it to ya’

In the name of the Lord.

Brandy was beautiful. I was in love with Brandy from the time I was a second grader, really all the way through high school. She liked me in that annoying way—a little bit more than a friend but never more than two hops outside of flirtation.

She was so smart. Golden blond hair, crystal blue eyes, sharp wit. Everyone had her pegged for obvious success. She had book learning.

Except when it came to boyfriends. She picked one of the dull football players whose father had obviously taught him to be mean. She started coming to school with a couple of bruises. Hell, we were just a small town, so when she said she “ran into a barn door,” it was possible.

And then she got pregnant. And all the people who thought she was smart and destined for success gathered in a circle to condemn her for her immorality.

It was sickening. It was ugly. I wanted to do something, but I couldn’t. I was a friend, nothing more, nothing less. She struggled. She hurt. She gave away her baby.

They want to teach you how to meditate

Read your horoscope and cheat your fate

And further-more to hell with hate

Come on, get on board.

Somewhere along the line, “smart” went to college and lost its religion. “Smart” became convinced that to believe in God was contrary to science, disrespectful to literature and irrelevant to history.

That old carpetbagger from Eden, the one who talked to Eve, is still out there every day, convincing people that knowledge is being withheld from them by believing in a dead God who only wants them to follow rules for no damn good reason.

A very dangerous step is taken: wanting to escape ignorance, we find ourselves dwelling in the counsel of the arrogant, who eventually fall behind the times with progressing discoveries, becoming ignorant themselves–but still arrogant about it.

Do you understand? Every generation has to be proven stupid, because no one is willing to be stupid to gain the wisdom available for the next generation.

That sucks.

So people want to teach you to meditate, check horoscopes, cheat your fate. Even noble causes like saying “to hell with hate” lose their power because they are delivered smugly.

We get scared. Doors slam in front of us and we’re afraid to knock on them. We think, “Relax. Play it cool. Don’t disrupt. Work with the existing material.”

If all I had was a Bible, I’d have to write another one. If all I had was a science book I’d have to be prepared to rip out pages and add new scribbled notes based on what I was learning.

And to keep myself from looking absolutely ridiculous, I need to knock on the door and try to get the data as soon as possible so I don’t look outdated.

I don’t know why we believe that a God who loved the world so much that He gave His son would get pissed off over a baptism, penis circumcision, women voting and driving, or even what you do under your covers in the bedroom.

Oh, the games people play, now

Every night and every day, now

Never meanin’ what they say, now

And never sayin’ what they mean.

The good news is, it’s good to know. You know very much. You are an intelligent sort.

But the better news is, to become wise, you must knock on the doors you do not know.