REFER TO GREY: Contemplations by Robert Greigos © 2007-2024

How frustrating to not have words adequate to what is before one's very eyes. Sadder still, in arrogance, to know damn well one has exactly the appropriate words.

Considering all the harm we cause to others, to the planet upon which we live, and even to ourselves, might not the world be better off, more serenely fulfilled, without us?

Of course, we can never know for sure. But, we can certainly try to learn how not to cause so very much harm to those around us, to our environment, and to ourselves. And then, of course, judiciously attempt to apply that acquired wisdom within our every word and action.

Learning. Learning is the key. Ignorance is curable, with effort, with questioning, with testing, and with thoughtful often collaborative reassessment. But there is no cure for obstinate arrogant ignorance. It goes as far as it will go, then is either crushed or left behind by the progress of things bigger, more powerful, or more resourcefully adaptive. The world itself chooses its companions. The arrogant do not choose for the world.

What confronts us is the real. What we understand of what is before us defines our ignorance. We can compare our own ignorances with those of others and in so doing diminish our own ignorance. But does that get us any closer to truly understanding what is real in the real's terms? Perhaps a bit. But we surely have much farther to go. Even if we could know everything that everyone else knows or has known, we would still be profoundly ignorant and feel frustratingly inept in face of the real. How humbling. How exciting. How inspiring of our desire to know more, to explore the real in new and potentially more useful terms.

May your efforts to thoroughly and completely understand help us all to earn a more satisfying, fulfilling, responsible, and enduring stint as companion to what has been given us.