I Don’t Know

I listen to the news. I read the reports. I do the research. I talk to my friends and family. I read the work of the experts. I study the laws and re-read the documents.

The truth is, I don’t know.

I don’t know why far too many people do far too many horrible things to far too many more people. I don’t know if there is anything we can do to change it. I don’t know if the answer is more laws or less. More access or less. More treatment or less. Anything. In fact, I don’t know if making any change at all will make the problem, any problem, worse or better.

I don’t think you do either. I don’t think any of us, outside of any issue, really can. Even within there is perspective at play. Heck, we |arfdf|referrer|ybdhb
don’t see the perfectly visible sometimes when it is in plain sight
because we are blinded by the action and the assumptions of pre-conceptions, assumptions, and opinions.

Opinions are not answers.

I don’t think we can even begin to tackle a problem, especially a big one, unless we are ready to confess all that we don’t know. Because believing that we know the solution means we don’t look for real answers — only validation.

When we don’t know we are willing to try things. If those things don’t work we are then more willing to admit we were wrong and try something else. Creativity starts with a blank slate. All filled cups start empty.

I will likely struggle at times but I’m making a conscious effort, today and going forward, to make “I don’t know” my sensible default in any discussion.

We have some difficult problems to solve ahead of us. We always have. I don’t know how to solve them . You don’t either. So, lets discuss our ideas. Know that neither of us is going to get it completely right. Know that we all are going to have gains and sacrifices. Let’s be open to trying some things out with the knowledge that we both seek a working solution.

Book List 2012

Books I’ve Read In 2012

I generally keep all of the books I read during the course of the year together on the same shelf. Since, with very few exceptions, I mainly read non-fiction, it gives me a pretty good snapshot of some of what I have learned or been interested in during the course of a year.

I happened to glance at that shelf today and thought to myself, “That is a rather fine collection”.

I then took a look at both the Kindle and iBooks and thought, “Wow, an even finer collection of book still! I should list these somewhere.”

I then took a mental inventory of all of the books I have borrowed and returned and thought, “Holy cow I have read a lot of books!”

Here, in no particular order, are the books I have read in 2012 (and I may even be missing a few):