As ridiculous as it sounded right off the bat, the concept is a solid one. We are in the middle of our early lifting session, after the morning’s high-intensity spin class for me and before school for Junior, when I blurt the preposterous. I ask, with that I felt was an appropriate mixture of honesty and theoretical possibility, if the total of civilizations knowledge, the sum of all learning, could be represented as 100%, at what percent do we currently stand? We are in the second of our three phase set, the first being a floor-core routine consisting of three way planks and stretching, and the second a 30lb dumbbell routine that includes curls, overhead lefts, calf raises, one leg balance and press, one arm cutaway flys, bent over row and weighted crunches. It is during this set that I presented the days flash quiz.
We finish the set and prep for the last of the three, the bench. He is first up and perhaps to buy some additional recovery time or maybe because he has been considering his response all the while, he says,
‘I guess it is similar to the question regarding ratios.’
‘In what way?’ I ask, pleased with the engagement.
‘Well, as an easy example, what would you rather know, a little about everything, or a lot about one thing?’
“Or be able to play a lot of songs partially or a handful of them perfectly?’ I counter.
“Or have many friends, or one true friend?’
“Or a garage full of junk cars or one tricked out hot-rod?
‘Or win nine of ten games against mediocre opponents, or the one big game?
‘Or be able to speak several languages conversationally, or two fluently?’
We chuckle at the exchange and agree that it could go on forever, but glancing at the wall clock it is time to finish out the set so he can shower, eat and run to catch the bus.
We high-five and I wish him a good day at school.
‘Four good days or one great day?’
‘Let’s start with today, make it a great day. And then tomorrow…’
He interrupts my response with his closing statement, ‘The interesting thing about the question, in my opinion, is that the real lesson is in humility. Whether I am at 2% or 22% of that 100%, the analysis indicates that I, we, the collective us, has a long, a very long way to go and should therefore consider even the slightest bit of additional, accumulated knowledge a major achievement.’
‘Are you saying that you would rather be humble than smart?’
‘No I am saying that the road there is more obtainable with humility than with narcissistic hubris.’
I am humbled.
No comments:
Post a Comment