THINGS WE DON'T KNOW WE KNOW

Written as a self-assignment to write SOMETHING since my knee precluded going to the dojo to train tonight...
Every now and then, an unanticipated question is asked. After a couple of moments to gather my thoughts, I launch into a long disquistion that covers both the basic mechanics, so to speak, of the question at hand, plus some philosophical commentary on the topic, maybe linking it to other issues or speculating on its implications.

It is always astounding to me when this happens (and I imagine to the questioner as well...). First, it’s generally a topic I’ve not been thinking about recently. So it’s a pleasant surprise to realize there is something useful knocking around in the gray matter, not just the lyrics to 40 year old rock songs.

Even more surprising, though, is to listen to a torrent of words issue from my mouth expressing an apparently fully formed analysis about the subject, from a distinctly personal perspective, when in fact I had never consciously pondered it at all until the question was asked. So it seems that I “know” more than I think I know.

Now, with skills, at a certain point internalized ability is expected. There's no doubt that tomorrow, after doing landscapes for six years, I could set up a usable pallet for a seascape. Each time I’ve come back to aikido after an injury, I was able resume directly working on whatever puzzle or issue had been the latest training conundrum.

In sewing, where I have more concentrated experience and, compared to either painting or aikido, actually expect myself to achieve mastery, it’s a delight to put the past to use. Last week I decided it would be a good idea to make some light cotton skirts and vests for when the temperature starts hitting over 90. Within a few days I’d drawn from memory onto fabric an odd pocket design from a 25 year old Carol Little shirt pattern, freehanded and cut side insertion pockets, again from memory, and after a quick check of a patternmaking book for a specific mathematical formula, folded and cut fabric on the spot for a circle skirt.

But in the realm of conceptual or intellectual knowledge, I don’t expect to function so well. The question that's posed might have to do with anything from politics to natural science to house-building - things I’ve never studied formally or consider myself particularly well-versed in. Yet I’ve been a voracious reader since the age of five and I guess all that stuff is IN THERE, roiling around, the synapses making connection when I’m not paying attention. As I write this, John Brunner’s “Stand on Zanzibar” comes to mind. When I read it as a teenager, I was struck by one of the main character’s job: taking in lots of information and then integrating or synthesizing from seemingly disparate threads a meaningful narrative or trend. Hey, I thought, I’d be good at that. I guess back then I sort of knew how my brain works. And now I still don’t know just what it is I know.