Really? Be honest with yourself. Okay, maybe you are…
Let’s look at what it really means. Dictionary.com defines it as:
adjective
1. having or showing a mind receptive to new ideas or arguments.
2. unprejudiced; unbigoted; impartial.
Life is always moving forward and we are always having new experiences and opportunities to learn and grow. So if we understand this, do you think it’s ever possible to know everything? No. So if we cannot possibly know everything, why do we get so sure of ourselves that the things we think we know are the unshakable truth? This is just stubborn ignorance in my opinion.
The root of the word Science means to know. To truly “know” something we must have experience with it. It is more than simply having the information that a concept or thing merely exists, but to experience the many aspects of it and see it from inside and out. We eventually learn that what we thought we knew about it at the beginning was just a fraction of the whole.
What do you see when you think of a scientist? Most of us in Western society will see someone in a white lab-coat sitting in their lab with vials of solutions around, and shelves with jars of various things in them, and a microscope and a scale and various other instruments. This is because the definition of science being rooted in knowing through experience means a scientist must experiment and try many different ways to “know” a substance – putting it to many different tests and seeing how it will react, collecting the data, reviewing it, et cetera.
We are all “scientists” as we go through life. As a true scientist, we must be a seeker of truth. We must suspend our preconceived ideas and be willing to change our opinion about it after having gained this knowledge. Now just as scientists will begin an experiment having a hypothesis, we will probably have one as well, but we ought to experiment with it, going through the necessary trials and errors until we have gained sufficient “knowledge”. A real scientific experiment must be conducted by utilizing the Scientific Method, which is: “a method of procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.”
Please note the words: experiment (and other similar words) and especially modification of hypotheses. This indicates that after you have researched, observed, experimented, and gathered lots of information, then you are still open-minded enough to change your stance on the topic.
Bringing this to real life, we know the establishment has lied to us about so many things. We also know that the victors are the ones who write history. So why do we think they would tell the truth about how things happened? Maybe some do, but most probably make themselves out to be much more noble than what was actually true in the circumstances. So with an understanding that history is probably altered and our news is often “fake”, would we be wise to refrain from becoming dogmatic about the things we think we know?
How much do we really know? How much of the things we think we know have we actually seen or touched or experienced for ourselves, or are we going on the trust or belief we have in a friend or group or establishment? How much more do you trust people you have never met (ancient authors or modern-day politicians), over people in your life whom you know very well and trust to be authentic and honest? Until you have seen it and experienced it for yourself, you don’t actually know… anything! Throughout my own life when I thought I knew a thing, I gained more knowledge and experience and realized how little I actually knew when I was younger. I’m sure we have all had an experience like this that we can look back to our youth or just some time previous and see how you did the same thing.
Just to be clear I’m not saying we should not have opinions or ideas about life. We do need to feel like we understand things enough to make sound decisions about how we live and go through life.
At the moment when you think you already know something, that’s when you are not open-minded anymore. If you already know a thing, you are then closed off to new information. Especially if it is contradictory information, then you won’t even consider it. You might even think it’s silly, or the other person is stupid. Unfortunately, our society has conditioned us to be judgmental to people who hold alternative views (which is another topic all on it’s own, which I’ll write about at another time). Well then you aren’t as open-minded as you think you are. And this attitude might go as far as being dogmatic.
It’s okay to not know something. It’s okay to say, “Let me research that and get back to you.” I do that at work all the time if I don’t have the exact answer during a meeting (and I don’t like giving bad information.) It’s okay to take some time. It’s okay to suspend having an opinion on something until you gain enough information about it to then form an opinion; and still leave room in your mind to be flexible enough to change that opinion again.
To truly be open-minded we know that we don’t know everything, thus we are open to hearing new information. Suspend your judgment and listen. We are open to doing some research on our own to find out more. We are willing to change our stance on a topic when new, additional, or different information becomes available. Or through research and experimentation we have our own profound experience that contradicts a previously held position (which has happened to me on numerous occasions.) We leave room in our personal philosophies to be wrong and to change and to continue learning and growing.
Even as I have been writing this, something came to my attention that needs altering. I thought I was doing something correctly, but through a conversation and a little googling, I found I was wrong. So, being open-minded as I am, I will now be changing the way I do that thing.
Let us not be dogmatic or narrow-minded about how we see the world, or go through life. May we be truly honest with ourselves and open-minded to the world around us and hold space for new ideas.
Hope Grace Roe 🙂
image credit: Kiley Victoria
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kiley-victoria-illustrations/7422457180/