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The beauty of what we will never know

Dija është një dhuratë e paçmuar. Por iluzioni i dijes mund të jetë më i rrezikshëm se injoranca.
The beauty of what we will never know

By Pico Iyer / On a warm October morning, I got off the night train in Mandalay, the former real capital of Burma, now Myanmar. On the road I came across a group of men standing by their carts. One approached me and offered me a ride to show me the area. The price he asked me was outrageous. It was less than I would pay for a chocolate bar at home.

So I got into his carriage as it pedaled slowly between palaces and pagodas. Meanwhile, he told me how he had moved from the village to the city. He graduated in mathematics. His dream was to become a teacher.

But of course, life in a military dictatorship is difficult, and at the moment, this was the only way to make a living. He told me that many nights he even slept in his carriage, so that he would be in time to receive the first visitors who arrived by night train. And we soon discovered that in some ways, we had a lot in common: we were both in our twenties, both interested in foreign cultures, so he invited me to his house.

We left behind us the wide and busy roads and started to go through wild and uninhabited paths. There were dilapidated huts everywhere. I completely lost track of where I was and realized that anything could happen to me. I could have been robbed, drugged or worse. No one would know.

Finally he stopped and led me to a shack, in which there was only one small room. Then he lay down on the ground and slipped his arm under his bed. My heart froze. I was waiting to see what would come out. He took out a box. Inside were all the letters he had received from foreign visitors, and on some of them he had pasted small black and white photographs of his foreign friends.

So when he said "goodbye" to me that night, I knew he had shown me the true meaning of travel, which is to let yourself go, to escape, to travel inside and outside of yourself, to places you'd never go. otherwise, to plunge into the unknown, into ambiguity and even into fear.

When you're at home it's incredibly easy to think you have everything under control. When we are outside, we remember that this is not the case, while we cannot understand all the reasons why this happens. There is always something that eludes us and remains unknown to us, until someone lights that way too.

I don't think ignorance is bliss. Undoubtedly, science has made our lives brighter, longer and healthier. The opposite of knowledge is not always ignorance. It may be the surprise. Or mystery. The opportunity. And in my own life, I've realized that the things that keep me going are the very things I don't know. Ignorance was what brought me closer to the people around me, to those who motivate me and give me hope.

Kohët e fundit, çdo vit për 8 nëntor, kam udhëtuar nëpër Japoni me Dalai Lamën. Dhe gjëja që ai thotë çdo ditë dhe që mesa duket i qetëson dhe u ngjall më shumë besim njerëzve është: "Nuk e di".

“Çfarë do të ndodhë në Tibet?” “Kur do të vijë më në fund paqja në botë?” “Cila është mënyra më e mirë për të rritur një fëmijë?”

“Me thënë të drejtën”, thotë ky njeri shumë i mençur, “nuk e di”.

Ekonomisti Daniel Kahneman, fitues i çmimit Nobel, ka kaluar mbi 60 vite duke studiuar sjelljen njerëzore, dhe përfundimi i tij është se kemi jemi gjithmonë shumë të sigurtë për atë që mendojmë se dimë, nga sa duhet të ishim në të vërtetë. Sipas fjalëve të tij të paharrueshme, ne kemi një "kapacitet të pakufizuar për të injoruar injorancën tonë". Ne e dimë se "skuadra jonë do të fitojë këtë fundjavë" dhe për këto gjëra që i dimë mendojmë vetëm në rastet e rralla që dalin të vërteta. Shumicën e kohës jemi në errësirë. Dhe këtu gjendet intimiteti i vërtetë.

Dija është një dhuratë e paçmuar. Por iluzioni i dijes mund të jetë më i rrezikshëm se injoranca. Të mendosh se e njeh dashurinë ose armikun tënd mund të jetë më e rrezikshme sesa të pranosh se nuk do t’i njohësh kurrë.

I've been a full-time writer for 34 years, and what I've learned is that change comes when I'm not in control, when I don't know what's going to happen next, when I don't feel bigger than everyone else. surrounds me It is more or less like the great law of "travel": you are only strong when you are ready to give up.

*Pico Iyer is a British writer and journalist, known for his travelogues. Author of many books and contributor to various media such as "Time", "Harper's", "The New York Times", etc. The article was translated into Albanian by Erjon Uka.