Blind Men and Elephant

Over time, I have found real value in many of the childhood stories we learnt as children. And this is my favorite fable.

This is a great story about six blind men being brought up to an elephant and being asked to describe the elephant. The blind man that held the leg, said the elephant was like a tree. The man touching the ears, thought the elephant was like a fan. The one near the trunk, said the elephant was clearly like a snake. While the man touching the tail, thought it was more of a rope-like creature. The one touching the tusk, thought the elephant was pointed like a spear. Finally, the blind man against the body of the elephant was very clear the elephant was very much like a wall.

As time has gone on, my arrogance of knowing things has been shamed again and again. Whatever I knew, I found was limited. There was more complexity, more layers, more patterns, more science, more history, more combinations in every subject I thought I knew about.

But then I find myself limited by time, by brain power, my amount of memory, and any stresses I may be dealing with. With all these limitations, understanding things and making good decisions stay hard.

We are limited human beings, limited by our parent’s genes, our upbringing, our problems, our injuries and handicaps, our need to make a living, our emotions, our memory and finally our aging. We try to make sense of this world, our friends, our family, our society with all these limitations. This is n almost impossible task.

I keep trying to reduce my arrogance given the reality of the mismatch of the world and me. I try to convince others who would listen, to learn more about our limitations and not be so assured in their opinions. It is an uphill battle.