Knowing

I spent twenty years in publishing – all of it in either academic or scientific fields.

It was a ‘mixed bag’ of everything from shoddy applied science to seminal work with Nobel Laureates.

The most interesting projects were when I was given an enormous and complex amount of information, data, observation, etc. to condense into a printed, published book. They made me sweat (sometimes literally)…but the finished book was always satisfying.

How to arrange a printed page became my rubik’s cube. How to visually ‘weight’ the information…how to order complexity…how to convey meaning/knowledge.

After perhaps ten years of practice I began to ‘know’ new information. I developed an ethic for understanding and conveying knowledge.

I also realized there is something to ‘know’…and something to ‘knowing’.

It was learned through practice, not intuition.

Various disciplines (science, theology, etc.) have distinct methods and ethics for knowing.

Once I understood ‘knowing’ and ‘the processes to know’ I began to evaluate everything differently.

It gave me perspective, belief, and faith in our human condition.

I believe certain physical practice also gives us the same learned knowing…and yoga is the best example from my life.

Animals ‘know’.

Culture is the result of shared knowing.

Truth is also shared knowing.

I was once told a joke (by a person of shallow character who enjoyed making fun of people)…a person was given a thermos container and told it keeps hot liquid hot and cold liquid cold. The person took the container and said ‘How do it know?’

‘How do it know?’ is a critical question.