To Be or Not To Be

A little kingdom I possess,
Where thoughts and feelings dwell;
And very hard the task I find
Of governing it well.
~ Louisa May Alcott

...that more or less describes my situation!

~A Wise Man Said~

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
~ Aristotle

Friday, June 28, 2002
 
Yipeeeeeeeee !!!!! I bought a Guitar !

I had long nursed a wish to learn the Guitar, but with one thing and another, never got around to it.

A few days ago I joined a Guitar class. I do not even know the ABC of it and when the instructor asked me if I knew a little, I pronounced an emphatic 'no'.

It is somehow so with me that, even when I know a little (by my reckoning) of a subject, I prefer to say I know nothing. Until I know a thing inside-out, I'm not comfortable claiming knowledge of it.

It would be well as it were, but trouble is that people who are not affected by such qualms and are confident of the little knowledge they have, end up gaining an advantage over me. That too would be acceptable, but it hurts when they use my own words to impose their superiority on me.

While I'm glad enough to accept my ignorance, it definitely would not go down well with me, to acknowledge someone as ignorant as I am, or perhaps more so, as my better. It never would.

I would use the same scales to evaluate another person as I would for myself, and if these reveal the person to be of superior material, I'll be only too happy to bow down to him. Infact, it would be a joy, an honour -- to honour talent.

But unfortunately, it is never easy to find such gems. For the truly great are humble, and who would suspect the greatness, where it is hidden in such humility?