Knowing and Doing

Lots of people ask questions. They want to know or need to know something. Sometimes at the same time. Logic leaps to answers; experience chooses options for the best answer. And then wisdom fills the rest of the space.

That is how it seems to work. It is also the way we want it to work. But when it comes to our time to personally follow the same answers, we hesitate.

What I need to do compared with want to do are quite different. Logic has little to do with our personal choice. We want what we want. We need what we need. It is difficult to find the right answer for ourselves. Much easier to advise others what to do.

That is obvious. It does not appear obvious, however. No; not obvious.

Aging prompts many questions. Aging seeks many answers. Wisdom for us is hidden almost always. Not so our advice to others! We hop to saying something for every question. Later we think again and wonder how we could have done it better. There is always a better, or so it seems!

I like thinking I have some good answers to offer others. In truth those answers are good but not always on point. Getting what the questioner is asking is critical. Are we certain we know what they are asking?  Without that, any answer will be wrong. And that’s a plain truth.

Up until now I have been dealing with knowing. Doing is something else. Taking action requires another set of experiences to understand what proper action is.  Some are basic: hungry leads to eating; no food means buying and cooking it, then eating. Some are more complicated. Even the hungry example is more complicated when no food is available and shopping, buying, storing, preparing and cooking are all involved. Still pretty basic. Basic human needs are often the most motivating – housing, clothing, safety, hunting – and systemic, complicated processes are created to handle most of them.

Consider employment. Then extend that concept to careers. So much more complicated.

The more we know, the more we perceive needs and wants. The more experience we have in these matters, the more we options we have for actions. Analysis enlarges the context and we are then able to execute decision making and action taking.

A huge missing piece of this process, however, is motivation to actually taking action. Why do anything if it doesn’t directly improve one’s own situation, condition?

Now that really gets more complicated. Motivating concepts multiply. Doing things for others, for example, involves rewards to the intellect, sense of well-being, building community, and a host of other concepts.

A local café struggles to remain in business following the COVID pandemic. Is it OK to let it close its doors without a fight? How did this enterprise come to be in the first place? What benefits accrued because it was in operation?

Well, a local café is a major benefit to the community itself. The sense of community is a primary benefit. Social interaction of individuals within the community is another benefit. Simple creation of jobs is another, expansion of the local economy is another, and yet another is the attraction of non-residents to the community itself.

Saving the café should mean a lot. An effort to save it means something good for the community. But first, others in the community need to respond to the threat of losing this part of the communal experience.

We those folks get involved? Knowing and doing are surely complicated!

September 4, 2024

 

 

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