There's a famous joke about an old fish,
and two younger fish.
"Morning boys!" the older fish says as he swims past. "How's the water?"
One of the younger fish looks at the other and says, "What's water?"
We live inside physical systems and systems of thought that we cannot see, because we can't easily get outside of them.
But we all know what it feels like when an old illusion falls away and you begin looking for a model that more accurately reflects what you've experienced. This happens in big ways and small throughout our lives.
When Santa Claus is unmasked.
When we move house or school.
The reality of death.
Leaving a church, political party, or relationship.
Realizing the world isn't fair.
How much tax was taken out of your first paycheck.
The idea that adults know what they're talking about.
We all have illusions to drop.
We all have fences to climb over.
The most curious amongst us keep having this experience throughout life. Socrates was still learning new melodies on the lyre right before drinking the hemlock.
Some people just want to know what's around the corner.
Not everybody has to go that far.
But the wise know that regularly traveling outside of their emotional, intellectual and physical reality expands their understanding of the world around them. And for an advanced ape stuck on the skin of a rock hurtling through space, I really don't know what's more valuable than that.
Here's a deeper dive:
- Why is Everybody Unhappy?
- The Tyranny of the Straight Line
- Live on a Bigger Map
"Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” - Carl Jung
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