The Cost Of Not Knowing

A man has only

One Life.

 

Time

Does not return.

 

This makes Knowing

Indispensable

And exquisitely necessary.

 

Patterns exist

In the lives of humans.

 

Predictable

And repetitive

And ubiquitous patterns.

 

One such pattern

Is that a man reaches a certain age,

Or a certain stage in his life or career,

And feels that the things it took him decades to learn . . .

If he would have known those things decades earlier,

What sort of career could he have had?

What sort of life could he have had?

 

And this is just for the few things

That he himself has learned.

This says nothing of the thousands of other things

That it will take him numerous lifetimes to learn.

 

The Truth

Is the most valuable thing

In existence.

 

The more Truths one knows

About the things he is pursuing,

The more likely he is

To attain them.

 

The more Truths one knows

About the things he is pursuing,

The sooner

He can attain them.

 

There is nothing more precious

And more irreversible

Than the numbered years

Of one’s life.

 

He spins his wheels

And is tossed about

In the wayward winds

Of the world.

 

Led down one wild goose chase

After another.

 

Most never escape

The wild goose chase.

 

The few who gain respite from it

Do so after many decades

Of wild-goose-chasing.

 

By then,

The bulk of one’s life

Has passed.

 

Everything in this life

Has a cost.

 

From the seemingly insignificant thing

To the overt thing.

 

One does not deserve blame

For not knowing.

 

After all,

Every human

Does what he can.

 

But life does not provide exemptions

For suffering.

 

The cost

Must always be paid.

 

And humans pay for it

With their lives.

 

How many decades

Is one willing to spend

Wild-goose-chasing.

 

How many decades

Is one willing to spend

Not knowing.

 

These are things

One must answer for himself.

 

 

Namaste.