Sunday, January 15, 2006
Ignorance is bliss
What a promising start to the New Year – asserting that, I mean. I get sentimental about a lot of things, and I really wanted to start the New Year with a post with a whopping dose of goodness and confidence and what not. As always things that move me enough to write aren’t usually brimming with goodness and confidence and all that. What started this post? Last week’s episode of CSI. Shudder! Yes, I watch Jerry Bruckheimer shows. But after that night, I think that the statement will soon be amended to “I used to watch popular television.”
A lifelong bibliophile, I’ve never questioned the inherent superiority of knowledge over ignorance. There may some matters that are guaranteed to bore you into an unrecoverable coma, if you ever took the trouble to find out about – like the intricacies of American Football, or most sports. But there wasn’t much on this planet or beyond which I felt was better to never inquire into, or pay attention to if someone else happened to mention them in the passing. Knowledge, till recently, was divided into boring and interesting, and varying degrees of boring and interesting. There was no “good” or “evil” cubby-hole, just as there was no “NOT to EVER find out about” compartment.
I shan’t go into the plot of the CSI episode – I’ve already lost one night’s sleep over the silly thing, and I really don’t want to waste any more time on it. And after all, who am I to judge? Perhaps the idea of reading is as nauseating to some folks as that plot felt to me.
No the point of this post is something else. I have come to the realization, perhaps too late, that omniscience is no longer desirable. I really don’t want to know about everything about everything any more.
Maybe that will be the theme I will focus on this year. Not bother with the things I see are starting to bother me. I don’t want to lead a life in the constant lap of comfort (yeah right!), but then again, if there is something am losing sleep over, I only ask that it be worth losing sleep over. This afternoon, for instance, I finally got around to watching Million Dollar Baby. The last few days have been really stressful, and I pretty much cried my way through this movie – giving vent to all the misery and doubt walled up in me over the last couple of months. Yes, this movie’s probably going to keep me up tonight, wondering about life and death, but at least this was worth it.
I sound disjointed, I know. I have a ton of things to take care of. I will finish those, and come back with a more coherent post. For now, no more CSI. Boy, that feels good.
