What do you and I, and the Catholic Church, and the astronomer Galileo, and my granddaughter Olivia, and literally everyone else who has ever lived, all have in common?
We all pass through the same very specific series of steps on the path to growing up.
This thought sorta came at me sideways this week as I was reading Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s new book—Cosmic Queries. It’s about big questions regarding the nature of the universe and yes, of course I was reading it. It’s no secret, I am a self-confessed science nerd. It’s public record, and I am unapologetic, cuz, you know … childlike wonder and truth and learning.
Ok, so his book recounts the story of how Galileo was tried for heresy by the Catholic Church for what? … For proving the earth was not the center of the universe. Newsflash, finding out you are not the center of the universe was a truth the church was not ready to hear and so naturally their big plan to deal with the truth was to ignore it.
So, what hit me sideways was realizing—as much as I want to put the medieval Catholic Church on trial for the crime of brazenly willful ignorance—the endless fight against brazenly willful ignorance is pretty much just the story of my life and being human.
Our granddaughter Olivia is also ignorant. Of course she is, she’s only five. But she’s in that phase where her eyes are opening wider every day and her world is doubling in size every 48 hours. Which all sounds very exciting until some newly truth does more than just inform her but also threatens to upset the carefully crafted stories that are a safe harbor for her emotions.
It looks something like this …
I started my life at the center of everything. But then I noticed, oh, you are here too. So naturally I pouted a bit but then rewrote my story so now WE are at the center of everything. Yay! But then WE noticed THEM, and now WE are trying to decide if THEY are going to be a part of WE because if we do that it’s like admitting NONE of US are at the center of anything and that’s very upsetting.
The stories we write for ourselves are so important to our sense of wellbeing that even when they’re proven false we usually won’t surrender them without a fight. I know the world is changing faster than ever and we’re all being asked to adapt, and adapt again, and adapt again. But the truth is we do need to adapt. Old dogs need to learn new tricks, and there’s way too much fighting about it.
So if you weren’t blessed with parents who were on top of this problem then let me share with you the advice Olivia gets to hear from her Mom and Dad:
You are precious, but no more precious than anyone else. You have the right to be here, but no more so than anyone else. You are strong, but not strong enough to do this on your own. You are smart, but of all the things there are to know, you only know a few. So feel special, but get used to being here with lots of other special people, and be smart, but be smart enough to know you don’t know much.
Good advice. Our ignorance, if accompanied by humilty, can become our greatest strength.
By the way, the Catholic Church did end up declaring Galileo correct … in 1992. In 2021 I know we can do better than that. Be flexible and humble enough to always be learning, always be changing, always be growing, because it’s the only way to always be building yourself a beautiful life.