Food for Our Minds and Spirits: An Important Oops.

The “Unicorn of Magdeburg.” An important Oops.

Its important to remember that our default experience is ignorance. If we didn’t seek, if we didn’t discover, we would be completely in the dark. There are lots of implications of this. For example, it means that the knowledge we have won is precious and we should care for it by passing it along as much as we are able. Another implication is that curiosity is a virtue, and we should try to be as inquisitive as we can be. It also means that we are going to make lots of mistakes and we need to meet our failures with appreciation and understanding. And maybe also with a little humor.

The above image is my favorite instantiation of this part of being a human person going from ignorance to knowledge. Beacuse––I mean, just look at that ridiculous thing! This was a reconstruction from the sleepy, earliest morning of paleontology, possibly as early as 1663. It was termed “the unicorn of Magedeburg” and while the specifics of its origin are murky, it was a best attempt to make sense of some bones from a prehistoric animal that were found in Germany. I cannot look at this thing without laughing. It is beautifully ridiculous.

I say all of that as an affirmation. From a certain perspective, these kinds of mistakes are just as important as the extraordinary discoveries that we all know about. Progress is not made in learning and discovering about our world by making pristine discoveries. It is made by making fruitful mistakes.

Allan T. Georgia, MDiv, MTS, PhD

Sometimes it is hard to tap into our spiritual selves or find time to nurture our intellectual curiosity. Here is a section that reflects on some nourishing materials from around the web and related media channels in order to get us thinking, get us feeling, and get us reflecting on the lives we are living in this big, beautiful world. **Some Adult/Mature Themes May Appear in Links and Other Attached Material**