Poemander

I must say, I just have to admit that people are knowledgeable nowadays and this is our predicament. Knowledge, however, cannot substitute experience and the experience hasn't got any worth without the awareness. The acquisition of experience requires courage whereas fear is the primary obstacle on the path of discovery. Due to perceived safety, people increasingly prefer to give up on experiences in favour of superficial knowledge, but knowledge without experience is a trap, a mind-trap. This has become a disposition of our time – the era of reason. Courage comes from the heart, not the mind. I repeat, nobody “learns” from others experience, experience is not transferable. One needs to move with courage in order to gain the experience, “learning” is not enough.

Knowledge is itself a recognition and an attribute of experience. Attributes, on the other hand, can be transferred, gifted or sold – not the experience itself. The distinction between the two seems to be long forgotten and is well overdue for a definitive line to be drawn as it has once been. Experience is and has always been an undertaking or a venture into the realms of unknown. Therefore, knowledge would be an attribute of such an undertaking – a takeaway, a reminder and a token. The attributes of experience are purely ornamental and are worn primarily for an acknowledgement or indeed a recognition, which is what the word knowledge means colloquially – to recognise.

So, dressed up in the paraphernalia of knowledge, do we still remember the meaning of tokens we carry and exchange on a daily basis? Do we still remember the path our progenitors traveled to arrive to where we now stand? I sincerely trust some do, but most don't, leave alone being capable of faring further on this path. Enveloped in knowledge we barely have any sight to see through it's thick cloaks. So here we are, in the era of reason, epoch of doubt, age of skepticism, born and nourished by fears: mind-centered dwarfs helplessly groping in the shadow of our former selves. Our time is the time of midgets; long gone are the days of giants, gone are the days of courage and trust!

But hasn't it always been that the Sun will come up and even before we open our eyes, the fine filaments of light will reveal themselves. First inconspicuously, then insistingly perceptible until becoming indiscreet and then... A sudden burst of light pierces through a sleepy consciousness spilling its juices into every nook and corner of our very being! Like a guard dog I spent my nights howling at the moon, awaiting for this mostly forgotten, tender basking sunlight. With a shiver running up my spine I now feel it's coming. I feel a nascent warmth starting to enter inside through the tips of my hair risen in anticipation of a sunrise. I herald the sunlight, but no one is there to take the heed. Everyone I see is wrapped up in their cloaks – the layers of impenetrable knowledge. When the Sun is up, the rays will burn them through, leaving in smoke what they have always ever been – just the ash.