this just in . . .

I was writing this post about new discoveries when I decided it was not really going where I wanted to go. I’m intrigued, certainly, whenever I hear some new tidbit that upends what we took as truth prior to the new information. Science is a storehouse for many of these stories, as it has been forever. Inventions help us see things we didn’t see before – thereby confirming that all we see is not all there is. From Galileo’s telescope to NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, we’ve traveled light years in understanding the heavens. Similarly van Leeuwenhoek’s microscope and study of microbiology introduced us to bacteria but now, 400 years or so later, we have transmission electron microscopes that can see into the quantum world of atoms.

What does any of this have to do with living a compassionate life? I guess the lesson I take is you don’t know what you don’t know. Shakespeare’s “there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy” says the same. American physicist Robert Millikan (1868-1953) said “Fullness of knowledge always means some understanding of the depths of our ignorance; and that is always conducive to humility and reverence. “

I feel a longing these days for humility and reverence. I remind myself constantly that there is vastly more that I do not know than I do. But that does not allow me to bypass what I do know and that is this: every one of us carries burdens. Some show, many do not. I work hard to remember that truth. And, so, I try -- I don't always succeed, but I try -- to consistently act with love, integrity, fellowship and respect toward others.

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2/2/2026