05/24/2013
Blissful Ignorance
5-22-13
When is ignorance a good thing? I know from personal experience that it is far more pleasurable to think about how much fun you’re having, or not to think at all, when you jump out of an airplane than to spend your last moments on earth, or just above it, going through every possible permutation of your impending death.
What about racists? They positively thrive on ignorance, their hatred as bilious and vile as a swine at meal time. To have their antipathy reflected back at them as in a mirror would be too difficult for them to comprehend and so better to remain locked up in their horse blanket of stupidity than reach for their unknown and unlikely salvation.
Then there’s American Idol. I know I have a tendency to refer to popular television shows but, as in the previously discussed Shark Tank, American Idol brings us face to face with the impossibly deluded and downright ignorant folks whose perception of themselves is so skewed and whose take on their abilities as singers is so obviously and painfully wrong that one must wonder at how blissful their ignorance must be that they can travel immense distances just to subject themselves to talented and rational people who keep getting them so unbelievably wrong.
We pride ourselves on what we know but what happens when what we know isn’t all we could know. It is so comfortable to float along on low tides of expectations than to stand upright in the bright light of objective criticism. In the end its easier for some to choose the blinkered path like those horses in Central Park who look neither to the right or left but always stare obligingly straight ahead.
Everybody knows that public speaking is frightening. But sometimes the battle is not overcoming fear but rather discovering the lethargy that binds you to mediocrity. If you’ve lived a successfully blinkered life, how are you going to know you need help and to whom are you going to turn when you are finally ready to shake off the bonds of ignorance.
Call 909-283-3991. It’s Me Public Speaking will help you discover your road less traveled and that will make all the difference. (with thanks to Robert Frost)