I Didn't Know

I was in training, once, for a new position which was extremely detailed. It would have been impossible for my supervisor to outline for me every possible variation of the tasks I was to perform. We covered the basics, and then I was entrusted with the responsibility of carrying through on the job. Much of the work, though dissimilar from one hour to the next, soon became an enjoyable routine and only occasionally did I encounter anything that was very different from what I had previously handled.

One day I was given one of those “variations on the theme.” It’s pretty much like what I’ve done before, I said to myself. A little different, but not too much. It’s almost, not quite, like yesterday’s assignment, or last week’s. I think I can do this. And so I didn’t ask. Using my best judgment seemed to have worked—for awhile. It was about two weeks before the job came back to my desk. Without being unkind at all, the supervisor simply explained, “This is how we want it. Please do it over.”

Well, I thought, I just didn’t know. But then, why didn’t I see that this particular job was different? I didn’t know . . . Well, you should have known. Or at least you should have asked . . . I didn’t ask because I didn’t even know that I didn’t know! Now realize, no one had scolded me, reproved me, or even criticized the job. Here I was, arguing with myself!

I have called myself lots of unflattering things for some of the serious mistakes I’ve made in my lifetime. “Stupid.” “Ignorant.” “Dumb.” “Blind.”
And only slightly less maligning: “Gullible.” 'Deceivable.” “Unsophisticated.” “Naïve.” The day I corrected my mistake on the job, I realized that I had often had the same argument with myself about these major issues. “I didn’t know. Maybe I could have known, should have known, but the fact remains, I didn’t. And I didn’t even know that I didn’t know!

Unfortunately, there are no “do-overs” in life as there are on the job. Still, it is empowering to realize that now we see light where before there was darkness. Over two thousand years ago, a Roman statesman-philosopher and great orator said, “I am not ashamed to confess that I am ignorant of what I do not know.” (Marcus Tullius Cicero, “Tusculan Disputations”) It’s as simple as that. We don’t know everything. Some things that we learn, we learn too late. Sometimes we even make the same mistake more than once because we cruise along life’s highway unaware of the danger in our “blind spot.”

We are often quick to condemn error, our own or others’, on the basis of “Ignorance is no excuse,” which is, in fact, a misquote. "Ignorance of the law does not excuse," is a principle in jurisprudence that one is bound by the public law of the jurisdiction in which he conducts himself, even if he has not made himself aware of it. (So that’s why I got a speeding ticket the other day!) Should we take this old Roman legal concept and apply it to our daily lives, particularly if we are making sincere efforts to live righteously? I think not. I am suggesting that we be a little more forgiving of ourselves and of others for the things we simply didn’t know at the crucial time.

Related article:
What If I Make a Mistake? here

MaryMartha
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Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com