how do you know what you know?

Answering this question could get very confusing very quickly. There's the argument that I don't know what I know and that I never really will. That what I think I know is actually a lie. But I don't think that's true. Not completely. 

I don’t think that there are ever behaviors or ideas that I just know. Everything I know has been learned. I’ve picked up lessons from the people I’ve been surrounded by, the experiences I’ve had, the questions I’ve asked, and the mistakes I’ve made. This consumption of knowledge happens gradually and that’s why kids stay kidlike for a long time. But eventually it happens and that’s why we grow up.

Everything that I’ve said so far has been on a broad spectrum. Narrowing it down may be even more confusing…but I’m going to try it anyway. If I wanted to narrow down exactly how I know the things that I know I’d say it’s from experience, and therefore from observation, and therefore from patterns.

I see life as a giant mess of patterns. Some patterns are composed of only a few elements, others go on for ages, and others are strung together coherently in a line. My favorite type of patterns are the circular ones. Chains of events and circumstances that link together to form causes and effects and causes and effects and so on and so forth. I learn from these by observing what happens. Testing out different decisions and paths to see where they lead me. Maybe I’ll end up at the beginning of the same circle or maybe I’ll find myself in the midst of an entirely new one. Who knows and who cares. Whatever happens, at least I’ll learn something.

There are some people who would be glad to be free of the circles. I’m not one of them. I live for circles and for patterns. I live in them. The more I learn, the greater my circles grow and the greater my circles grow the more I learn.