I’ve just talked with a friend of mine which shared some experiences on how her brother was struggling to get into grips with being what he perceived as a “failure” of sorts. And so she shared with me a bit of their debate of what a failure really was, in terms of knowledge and so forth…
The thing is, seems that nowadays, we are all too centered on the things that knowledge of a certain topic might or ought to bring to us. Be it fame, followers, more money on our bank account, means to survive and “thrive” in terms of our modern society standards. Trouble is, not every kind of knowledge is monerarily measurable, or in terms of “gains” it ought to bring to us, so why do we constantly treat is as if it were as such?
Do we (or some of us) only seek a certain knowledge when it is certain that it might bring us the bearing of fruits such as recognition or an increment in the means through which we live our life? I too fell for the trap of this “dissuading knowledge”, where nowadays I don’t really seek something that is of my interest because I just like it. No. Worst of all is my mind always harassing myself to do things that ought to make myself feel productive, but then, in which terms is this productiveness accoutable?
Our “Free time”, or some knowledge of the arts that we might entertain ourselves with, seems to have faded away, whereas with ever increasing prices, cost of living and the issues we are constantly tormented with, socially and personally, are dragging us drown. Unable to remain afloat of our issues, seems like “knowledge per se” is equal to just “wasted time” or “wasted potential”.
But how, or why should it be so? And where in the first place did we learn that learning things for the sake of learning them was insufficient, anyhow? Were we really taught so, or did we mimic others, by seeing some struggle, and then, trying to avoid its pitfalls by becoming vigilantes of our available time and choices done with it?
Unfortunately, as in other cases, I have no particular answer for such considerations as I myself am in constant struggle to keep up with the pace of migrating technologies at work and other responsibilities I ought to take, so much that I too fall prey to the considerations of “doing is working”, instead of “resting brings meaning”.
I pray that somehow we might find ourselves out of the freaking hamster-wheel which so many of us have trapped ourselves into, running and spinning around, evermore slightly on the edge and on the constant risk of getting ejected if the pace is not kept.*
*(In case you didn’t understand such analogies, please look up on your go-to-video-streaming-site to check “hamster wheel”)