Fallen Into Knowledge

So, as you know, I spend a majority of my time trying to understand Really Difficult Ideas.  Difficult enough that most people acquire a “deer in the headlights” expression when I answer the “what are you up to these days” question.  And there is no doubt that Understanding such ideas is difficult and takes concentrated time and effort, but I find interesting that we don’t acquire similar expressions when confronted with the notion of understanding people.
I know, call me Captain Obvious:  People are difficult to understand.
Some might object; but we cannot understand people as if they were ideas.  True, nor would I advocate such a thing.
But.
It seems to me that responding well to people; responding to people in a peace and life-giving way, responding to people in such a way as to maintain their subjectivity as persons, requires some degree of understanding.  Not complete understanding - that, even in the realm of Ideas, is a mirage, unattainable - but adequate understanding.  Enough to respond well.
When I think about this process, I feel the “deer in the headlights” expression coming on.  Because responding well to People is so much more important than understanding Really Difficult Ideas.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 5th, 2005 at 6:28 pm and is filed under School. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.