I Don't Understand

I am a prideful guy, and I think that I am a pretty sharp pencil. I like it when people think that I am clever. Sometimes I am clever, and sometimes I wing it. I rarely say, ” I don’t know” or ” I don’t know.” I am choosing to make Thursdays my “I Am Just Trying to Understand’ day each week. Thursday will be the day that I proudly declare my ignorance. I won’t synthesize what I do know and try to shape it to fit an unrelated question. I won’t bluff my way through conversations. I will just say ” help me understand” or ” tell me more, so I can understand.” By being transparent and inquisitive, I will learn more about the subject under discussion and the person or people around me.

Here are different ways I can say, “I do not understand.”

“What did you say? What do you mean? Can you tell me more? Can you say more about that? I don’t understand. Excuse me; I didn’t get it. Excuse me, can you please repeat it? Sorry, I missed that. I missed that. That went right over my head. Can you please speak slowly? I don’t get it. Do you mind explaining it again? I’m afraid it is not clear what you are saying. Would you mind clarifying what you said? I am sorry, but I don’t follow what you are saying. I don’t catch what you said. Sorry. I am not trying to be smart; I just don’t get it.”

Even writing those words makes me a bit uncomfortable. A script in my head tells me that I should know everything or at least not disclose any lack of awareness, experience, or education. It doesn’t matter where my scripts came from; I just need an awareness that the foundation informs my decisions. I can’t change yesterday and the actions or inactions embedded in my nature. Still, slowly and subtly, I can move forward, altering how I choose to react to familiar and unfamiliar stimuli. Today, I recognize my desire (need) to be correct and to be seen as clever, and I challenge myself to be open and transparent by asking awkward and clumsy questions to clarify and learn.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

– Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio

It seems Old Bill understood that we need to accept that we don’t understand everything/anything. Where we see certainty Hamlet saw other possibilities. I am excited to see what Thursdays bring and whether my horizons will expand beyond what I am comfortable knowing.

Make Today Remarkable, by allowing some confusion,

Bob

By choosing Thursday as the day to show the world there is more that I don't know than that which I do, I learned;

"Thor's day," gets its English name after the hammer-wielding Norse god of thunder, strength and protection. The Roman god Jupiter, as well as being the king of gods, was the god of the sky and thunder. “Thursday” comes from Old English “Þūnresdæg.”

"Thursday, Feb. 7, 1963 marked the beginning of a music revolution that we’re still feeling today. When the Beatles invaded North America"

"The world got its first peek at what would be become the mother of all PCs during a computer convention on Thursday, January 7, 1982. The Commodore 64 debted. To this day, the 8-bit machine is still listed as the biggest-selling single computer model of all time. " We purchased a C64 to replace our Vic 20 soon after.

"In the U.K., elections are always held on a Thursday. This may seem a little odd, especially considering there’s no specific reason why other than tradition. The last U.K. election to be contested that did not occur on a Thursday was back in 1931"