Aug 10
25
Where knowledge ends…
In the 1970s, a movie came out called Lost Horizon. Never heard of it? You’re in good company; it flopped in the box office, and was never released on VHS or DVD. (Fun fact: Burt Bacharach and Hal David did the music.) I know the movie because my mother knew the music, and I learned from her. Learning, in fact, is what we’re going to talk about today.
There’s a song in the movie that I really like. I’ll post the words:
There are things that you see;
Other things you feel.
Feelings can’t be seen, yet we never doubt they are real.
When you search for the truth, don’t just use your eyes.
Look inside yourself: that is where the truth always lies.
Where knowledge ends, faith begins, and it shines like a star
Till your heart fills with hope and with love.
From the day that we’re born, we start asking why.
There is more to life, more than it would seem meets the eye.
When you’ve learned all you can, there’s still more to know–
Things you can not prove, so you just believe they are so.
Where knowledge ends, faith begins, and it shines like a star
Till your heart fills with hope and with love.
I love this because it talks about how limited our empirical senses are, and it alludes to how endless the amount of knowledge in this universe is…and how some of the most important things we will ever learn will come from within ourselves.
I talked to a good friend recently about how much we’re learning in our lives. Yes, we’re both at different stages of formal education, but it wasn’t just academics we were talking about. We mentioned different lessons we’ve learned through our many experiences. We talked about our opinions, and why we feel the way we do about things. We talked about the women we are, and the women we hope to become…and are becoming.
I love learning. And I love that some of my most powerful learning comes not from books, but from introspection.
She (the singer) finishes her song by singing: “I have looked in your heart; I have faith in you.” I have faith in me, that I will be able to learn all I need to, even when it seems my mind and heart and soul can’t hold any more knowledge, and that I can take what I know and use it to help other people; and I have faith in you, that you can do the same.
