Tuesday, May 17, 2005

A second look...

I've been thinking more and more about what I wrote in the post Ignorance is Bliss. If this were an essay that would have been my rough, rough draft. I'm sure had I turned it in to my english professors (the ones I liked) they would have sent it back filled with red marks and new thoughts. Instead I need to weild the red pen myself.

As I keep thinking about this I wonder if I am defining ignorance, choosen ignorance, as naivete. Does one have to not know that they don't know something in order to be naive? Is it just simply stupidity to choose to ignore the hard parts, to avoid some feelings and thoughts that are painful? Is it better to know a lot and feel pessimistic about the world? Or know very little and still believe in the goodness of life? And is it really possible to know about all the awful terrible things, to feel all those destructive emotions, and still be able to see the world as wholly good? Is this the kind of thing that comes with age or am I destined to be either naive or jaded?

I sure wish I had a teacher around right now to bounce these ideas off of. I feel inadequate and ill-equipped to handle these issues.

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