Knowing

Every artist was first an amateur.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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I like this idea. I recently (re)read that we should remember when we struggle with others' ignorance that before we knew we did not know. 

Patience and a desire to cultivate understanding via love is something missing in our world today. Instead we want to convince through bullying and fear. We seek to dominate others in order to silence them rather than listening to the ways in which we are all struggling or afraid. 

That's not a good way to be.

I think I better way to be would be to listen. And if you can sit with someone and really truly listen to them while you're sharing some ice cream, all the better. And if you can't share some ice cream with someone, that is the real problem. You need to do some work on yourself and figure out what those barriers are about. And work on those things.

And if you say, "Hey - I'm lactose intolerant, so I can't eat ice cream!" then you've missed the whole point of this post. 

Also, if you say, "Hey - I'm lactose intolerant, so I can't eat ice cream!" when you're in the woods or in church or in a library or in an ice cream shop, you're going to get some weird looks.