Sunday, September 03, 2006

Ode to Go

People are always interesting. But certain people are noteworthy. Take Go (not his real name). Go is around 30-35, thin, kind of scrawny guy with chronic stomach problems. He comes from one of the more remote areas of this country. Go has absolutely no self-esteem problem. He is one of those people who are always right and will insist on their point no matter how much evidence to the contrary. Of course I did not know Go at the beginning of this project four weeks ago but I did notice early on that he was very good at provoking debate. I would patiently listen to his comments, thinking I must have missed something crucial to understanding what he is trying to say, because I couldn't believe anybody could be so ignorant. Surely he was trying to communicate something else...

What was even more interesting though, was the reaction of the other people in the group. They figured him out long before I did. They quit arguing with him while I was still taking his comments seriously and still trying to explain to him.

I find people like Go fascinating. Did their mothers never try to correct them? Did't they tell them not to be a know-it-all, not to always assume they know everything? Or did their mothers try, but to no avail? I feel embarassed for such folk - they are so bold to insist that they are correct and yet seem to have no clue as to the breadth and depth of their ignorance.

(Hmmm, as I think about it, maybe from God's perspective we are all rather like that. Claiming in our ignorance that things are a certain way and refusing to look at the contrary evidence... )

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