Chautauqua

Being able to witness my very first chautauqua was a very unique experience.  However, after a semester with Dr. Sexson I should expect nothing less than an eye opening, thought provoking event.  Granted, it was a bit hard to hear everything at the back, but I wouldn't have noticed all that was happening because I kept getting hung up on specific thoughts.  One thing that I just kept thinking about was David Buchanan's comment on how knowledge is like a train.  We can keep adding cars to it, but we're still moving forward.  I had never really thought about the motion of knowledge before.  In all honesty, I had not ever considered the dynamics of knowledge; I just assumed it was more static, with our minds being a sort of filing cabinet of information.

However, when I stopped to ponder it, Mr. Buchanan is correct.  This is, as after taking this class everything seems to be, due to levels of connection.  As knowledge is added it is as cars of a train - linked together - not just another file stored in the same location.  As cars of knowledge are added, more and more connections are realized, changing the context and greater understanding of everything, for to understand something one must also know and understand everything.  Therefore, the addition of some knowledge adds to the understanding of all other things, moving overall understanding forward.  For example, knowing the strength of gravity and knowing that gravity is what holds us to the earth can be classified as two separate facts.  However, it is through connecting the two and understanding the strength of the pull that holds us down increases the value of the two individual facts, moving knowledge forward.  Through connections and layers, knowledge really is a train, moving forward and adding more cars, not a sedentary file cabinet.

Though this was just one small idea brought up in the grand event, it completely changed my outlook on knowledge.  The train metaphor seemed to nicely sum up (though, as we now know, summarizing things down to one small idea loses most of the value) some of my thoughts on knowledge I discovered in our seminar.  Having never read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance myself, it has now secured a top spot on my "To Read" list.