Here’s a question guaranteed to blow your mind apart:
“What don’t I know?”
I’m sure you see the problem with the question. In case you don’t, I’ll play Captain Obvious and point it out. If you knew what you don’t know, then you’d be well on the way to knowing it, and then you would know. So this question becomes like one of those particles that changes when you look at it, or in this case, when you talk about it. Or think about it.
Of the top of my head, here are five random things that I know that I don’t know:
1. Whether the world will blow up tomorrow either because of some insane mad man or a natural disaster.
2. If there will ever be a foreign language edition of Between on sale in another country.
3. How many people will be stung by bees over the course of the next twenty minutes, and whether one of them will be me. Or you, for that matter.
4. Your favorite number. (I assume that you know this, and it’s comforting to know that somebody knows what I don’t know.)
5. Whether there is a universe or a reality in which pigs have wings. Or even whether there has been a pig with a genetic mutation involving wing-like appendages. That’s the sort of thing Google might know, though, so let’s go ask.
Oh, Almighty Google, please tell me true – has there ever been a winged pig?
In response, here is an actual entry from Ask.com:
Q. Has there ever been a sighting of a Flying Pig?
A. Flying pig is a kind of a saying to say that the thing is impossible. No there are no flying pigs and no one has ever seen one and anyone saying so is shamming you.
So there you have it. No flying pigs. And now there is one less thing that we don’t know. I suppose this is the point about taking the time to ask the “what don’t I know” question. Sometimes you learn something.
For example, Cincinnati has a Flying Pig Marathon every year.
Also, before totally accepting the No Flying Pigs theorem, you should know that YouTube disagrees with Google:
Your turn: What is one thing that you don’t know today?
I should have waited until I had more coffee to ponder these questions!! 🙂
Au contraire – when you’re half asleep is the best time to ponder.
I’m struggling to narrow my answer down to just one thing I don’t know today. The list is endless and intimidating. That started me thinking about things I wish I knew, and that list is just as endless. Sadly, what I know is a finite list. Oh, cruel world!
Alas. 🙂
Oh, Kerry! Thanks for a delightful beginning to my day! 🙂
My pleasure. 🙂 If I can do one small thing to make Monday an easier space for one person, then I have not lived in vain. Or so I am telling myself
The bee thing started me channeling Winnie-the-Pooh… “You never can tell with bees…”
I asked SIRI if Pigs can fly. Here’s what she told me:
“When will pigs be able to fly?”
Answer:
A. When they grow wings.
B. When inserted into a circus cannon whose fuse is lit.
C. When they figure out how to buy plane tickets.
Well played, SIRI, well played.
Go Siri! That is awesome.
Seriously, what did people do before the internet?