Day 4 Is it Information or is it Knowledge?

It has been said by many more authoritative persons than I that we live in an Information Age. I cannot dispute the claim. What I can and do dispute is that it’s valuable.

Information is information. Facts. Figures. Data. Zeroes and Ones. Ho-hum. There for the taking.

So?

So the consistent error we make, at least in the West, is to behave as though information is knowledge.

It isn’t.

Knowledge is an entirely different animal from information. Knowledge, real knowledge, is based on what you truly know. True knowing comes from the inside out, not the outside in.

Information, for the most part, is outside in.

There is a line from Christian Scripture, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

Note carefully: it’s the truth you know that makes you free, not the information you have at your fingertips. I refer you to Dr. Google.

The thing is, we in the United States are inundated with both information and misinformation from the Toddler-in-Chief on down.

In the past week, I’ve come across the following information on the coronavirus from that august source (using the words loosely indeed):

We have it handled.
It’s not a threat.
Build a wall.
Stop the foreigners from bringing it to us.
Paid sick leave isn’t necessary.
I’ve been exposed; I don’t need a test.
I had the test; it’s negative.

All misinformation. Maybe. For sure, the Narcissist-in-Chief was exposed. But did he have the test? All the Times headlines said his doctor said he did. Did he? Who knows?

I’m more interested in what you know in this pandemic situation.

Here’s what I know.

I am extremely blessed. I can, for the most part, stay home.
I have health insurance.
I can wash my hands. I can limit contact. I can take care of myself and those I love.

All these things I know from the inside out.

We are, for the most part, in involuntary lockdown. Even more isolated from one another than normal.

We each have, for the first time in a long while excepting those of us who seek it deliberately, the time to look within. What do you know to be true for you?

Not what do the pundits say. Not Fox or MSNBC. Not your neighbor. Not your parents. Not your kids.

What do you know?

Do you even know what you know?

Most of us don’t. Most of us spend our lives looking for reinforcement from the outside in. And it’s not available right now.

I’ll tell you what is available.

Yo-Yo Ma posting videos of cello concerti to soothe us.
Virtual trips through museums worldwide.
Recordings of Broadway shows on Broadway HD for, pun intended, a song.
Podcasts on the topics of your choice.
Books to download to your e-readers from libraries all over the world.

I know these seem like outside-in options, but they don’t have to be. What do those things you know draw you toward? What do you need to know that you can find out?

I have a younger brother who decades ago got to second grade without learning to read. My mother panicked. I was in college at the time, far away from where they lived. I promised her I’d come home and teach him to read. Then I fell back into my reality of exams, final papers, and the spring musical.

When I got home, I watched my favorite brother for a week. He could sing every commercial jingle on television. But he couldn’t read. It was our fault, really. Whenever he wanted to know what something said, one of his older siblings or his parents read it to him.

About a week after I got home, I took him to Barnes & Noble and bought him an automotive textbook—on car engines. He was fascinated by cars, and especially engines. Because he wanted to know, because he was drawn to know it from the inside out, he learned to read in a week. I think he still has the textbook.

This is a time of enforced quietude. A time in which we each have the option to graduate from information-grabbing to knowledge revelation. (So you know, those who use their knowledge eventually graduate to purveying Wisdom, but that’s another post altogether.)

There is a natural wholeness that lives inside of each one of us. Some would call it soul; some, spirit; some, Self. It doesn’t matter what you call it; it matters that you call it.

Join me, Beloved. Take this time, chosen or not, to make use of it for your betterment and that of humanity. Who knows what you’ll discover when you start to live with courage from the inside out?

I can assure you of this. You’ll be living far, far past the information age and you’ll be joining a lot of folkx who are choosing knowledge as a basis for genuine thriving.

Maybe something extraordinary will come into your life because of this insulated time? The only way to find out is to look past information and toward knowledge. You’ll find yours within.

Dr. Susan Corso is a metaphysician and medical intuitive with a private counseling practice for more than 35 years. She has written too many books to list here. Her website is www.susancorso.com

© Dr. Susan Corso 2020 All rights reserved.