The Peace Of Not Knowing

Recently, I have encountered several people who were strongly opinionated and thought they knew a lot, in general  and, certainly, the “right” way to do things.  I must admit that was me in my middle to late twentys and early thirtys. Being an assistant professor, researcher and chairperson of important committees, that attitude worked well for me, or I thought it did.  At that time, I was not happy or at all peaceful, yet I doggedly pursued what I knew to be right and judged others who “fell short”.   I now know that I don’t know much and that people are simply different, not better or worse.  There is a lot of peace and serenity in my current approach of knowing enough to know that I don’t know much.  I also spend a lot of time listening to other people and realize that we are all “right”, if I pay attention.