TO KNOW

Baltasar Gracian wrote,
there are four ways to know:
1. Live long enough.
2. Travel through many lands.
3. Read many good books.
4. Converse with wise friends.
1.
Live long enough,
and you’ll see a street bum
offer you his last cigarette
while the tycoon down your street
fills his garbage can with food
that his neighbor can’t afford.
Then you’ll know that
peoples’ names are not what we call them
but are spelled by the things they do.
2.
Travel through many lands
and you’ll be shocked
to realize that your poison
is another’s 3-course meal.
You’ll find peace
living under thatched roofs
and chaos running naked in palaces.
It will amaze you,
that there is a man
that looks like a king
and talks like a sage
but goes to bed hungry.
Don’t be rattled to find women
more beautiful than your queen
even though they wear no makeup.
3.
Read many good books
so you won’t bruise your palms
with effusive applause for your Prof.
because before he knew,
there were those that knew
of the new things
that are new to you.
Within pages, you’ll discover,
that there are worlds.
Worlds gone. Worlds here. Worlds to come.
And as your eyes read words,
they become heavy and weary
with the ages of the authors
4.
Converse with wise friends…
not just the ones dulled by schools,
or those who have their common sense
tied up by the web of the internet,
but those who slip their hands
between the underarms of the earth
to they tell the stories
of how ice can kill
and fire can heal.
This will make you learn
from those who learn not
from leaning on the tongues of men
but gleaning volumes
from what men left unsaid
FINALLY,
In all of your knowing,
know that, the more you know
the more you know you don’t know.