BBC Radio Bristol Thought for the Day 28th January 2021

• Posted: Tuesday, May 11, 2021
• Random Thoughts
• Justin Newland

Thomas Gray, an Eighteenth century English poet, penned the well-known lines:

"Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise."

For example, in these days of email scams, how much do we need to know? Or is it better to be ignorant? What about children? They're 'ignorant' in the sense that their experience of life is small. At birth, we're programmed to handle automatic responses like breathing but are empty of everything else.

So, as the full runs to the empty, Nature lights a fire in us to gain experience and the knowledge that is born from it.

Ignorance is lack of information or knowledge. Information's as available as your neighbour's opinions, so ignorance is lack of knowledge. What about bliss? It's defined as supreme happiness. So ignorance, the cold absence of understanding, is not bliss. It's a frozen state bound by uncertainties like fear and anxiety. Doesn't wisdom – the conscious act of knowing and being able to understand more – bring with it a warmth and a fire that melts the numbing state of those stresses and fears?

So, my friends, shun ignorance, re-kindle the fires in you to learn and understand, and find the true bliss of knowing.