-- The Paradox of Knowing --

John Herlihy

Some things that we profess to know

Are things that we can claim to know.

Other things that we profess to know

Are things that we rarely claim to know.

On one hand, we think that we know;

We take clear pleasure in the knowing.

Still, we know with no true knowing;

We deceive ourselves as if knowing.

In this way born the paradox of knowing;

We take pride in knowledge of knowing.

Yet we betray any wisdom of our knowing,

Acting as though there is no true knowing.

I know the sun will rise, the day will arrive,

A knowing taken for granted as given fact.

Internalized, we pursue our lives and survive,

The knowledge verified with each simple act.

Similarly, we know that tomorrow will come,

Just as we know our joy and sorrow multiply.

Addition of two and two makes a clear sum,

So much varied knowledge our minds satisfy.

Then we speak of knowledge of the unknown;

Mysteries we confront that we cannot deny..

Knowledge we adopt from questions sewn;

Faith offers us answers upon which we rely.

We construct our knowing as a bridge,

Carefully from the building blocks of faith.

The unknown turned knowledge with edge,

As with darkness, in moonlight us feel safe.

I wrote earlier a knowing we claim to know,

Actually, a knowing that is not truly known.

Knowing so feeble, with every wind to blow,

The flesh of faith withered down to the bone.

We live our lives as if we will on live forever;

Even though we know that we will finally die.

Any promise of future days as broken, never,

On a myth of unknowing we most often rely.

We profess to believe that God truly exists;

He is there in our hearts wherever we are.

While that nagging doubt in our mind persists;

Disbelief hovers ever so near, belief ever so far.

The paradox of knowing lies there in the soul,

Battleground of impulses of shadow and light.

True knowing built from pieces of the whole,

A puzzle that we put together as a birthright.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Sunday 30 January 2022