The Unknown

At the end of the medieval spiritual classic The Cloud of Unknowing, the author writes, “It is not what you are, and not what you have been, but what you wish to be that God considers with His merciful eyes.” Life is about becoming. Living organisms are either growing or dieing. Either way the organism is moving toward a new state. We can know only that which is or has been. Knowledge is about the past. We cannot know that which is not yet. Knowledge is prelude to creation. We are to help our students gain knowledge and acquire the skills to use that knowledge to create anew. We are to foster creativity and innovation in our students. That is how humanity moves forward. Each generation must move beyond what previous generations have thought and created. We are to prepare our students to move beyond us. We are to instill in them the confidence to move out of the known into the unknown.