When my kids were growing up I encouraged them to question everything. When I was a little kid I was a mess of insecurity. Long before I knew that I was smart I liked to raise my hand in class. But then I had a teacher who would say, when asking a question, "Who knows and knows that he knows?" I quit raising my hand. First off, you obviously needed to be a boy to answer the question and you needed to know-for-certain.
Currently, I'm reading a devotional called Between the Dark and the Daylight - Embracing the Contradictions of Life. It's written by one of my very favorite writers, Joan Chittister - who is an internationally acclaimed writer, a spirituality director, a former advisor to the United Nations and a Benedictine (cloistered) nun.
Joan's chapter today was on certainty and doubt and it hit me right between the eyes. Here are a few things Joan reminded me we were once certain about:- The earth is flat
- The sun revolves around the earth
- Black people have low I.Q,s
- Women have low I.Q.s
- Bloodletting is curative.
- Human beings cannot fly.
- Deaf people are also dumb.
- Cigarettes are good for you.
And she says this: Doubt is what shakes our arrogance and makes us look again at what we have never really looked at before. Without doubt there is little room for faith in anything.
I talked to my daughter on the phone this morning. She, on behalf of students and teachers, is questioning some things in her school system. I am proud.
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