There is a deeper purpose in learning.  It is not necessarily to expand my borders of knowing or to increase my influence, but to identify the edge of my knowledge.  I look hard for the edge of my knowledge and diligently assess my circumstances for where I may find out what I didn’t know I do not know.   The effort to straddle the boundary line, keeping one foot in what is known and the other in what is unknown is a deliberate practice and the effort to balance the two is what develops my curiosity and openness.   Despite the number of times I might encounter a familiar circumstance or situation, my intentional effort to keep walking in part through the darkness of the unknown while honoring the anchoring knowledge from what has been experienced is my safe guard from arrogant blindness.   Paying attention to where I speak from certainty or in absolutes can provide clues to where the next moment of learning is likely to occur.  Perhaps that is the realization here: blindness exists in all of us and in every situation.  The wise watch for it, walk into it with anticipation.  The arrogant and ignorant seek to avoid it by denying its existence clinging to certainty and absolutes.  I for one do not wish to fall into that trap and need safe guards which come in many forms in my life.  One of the most vibrant for me has been my bi-directional mentoring relationships.  The primary role of the mentor is to bring awareness to blindness.  A skilled mentor is able to recognize this in others and looks first to herself before providing the lesson to her mentee and then as the lesson unfolds, the mentor listens intently to the rebuttal, challenge, or for where the mentee struggles to “see” the blindness allowing those arguments and denials to sound off as her own.  It is here that the mentee’s commitment to growth and learning is meet with a similar commitment from the mentor and the two are of mutual benefit to one another.  The fortunate mentor is one who is routinely shown her own blindness. 

 

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