Saturday, March 18, 2023

Peripheral knowledge requiring updating

The name Dusty Springfield has been at the periphery of my musical knowledge for years.  Not important knowledge, fortunately.  I had the vague impression that Dusty Springfield was an American male singer from the 1970s.  Possibly I was conflating Dusty Springfield with Bruce Springsteen.

A laughable mistake to those with even a modicum of knowledge.

To my somewhat belated surprise, indeed, astonishment, I learn this morning that Dusty Springfield was actually a female English singer in the 1960s with multiple Top 40 hits.  I was living in England at the peak of her celebrity.  One of her hits, Son of a Preacher Man is a song I know and enjoy, even though I obviously did not know the singer.

My knowledge of music, musicians, and singers has always been a weak point though I have built it up somewhat in recent decades.

Still, I am occasionally astonished at just how much I don't know.

The thing is, what if this is true in most fields of knowledge?  There are fields of knowledge in which I am reasonably well versed.  I am not often surprised to discover something I don't know.  Well and good, but I would wager that if I were to do any sort of systematic drill-down on a particular issue, I would discover all sorts of interesting things.  

In fact, I don't have to wager.  I know this happens with some frequency.  For some reason, when I go looking for new knowledge, I don't feel like I am discovering my own ignorance.  I am instead, expanding my knowledge, an obviously different matter (/sarc).  

The only point in capturing this moment is as a reminder that we are each and everyone always in deep ignorance and that humility should be more of a watchword.  Certainly I should be more conscious of it than I allow.

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