Learning, Unlearning, Knowing and Unknowing.

Photo by Lauren bova on Unsplash

“When the final key is turned on the door of unknowing, will we hear a great song?” - Samuel Martin

This post is a continuation of my September exploration of beginnings, endings, learning and unlearning. For me, part of learning has always required a willingness to learn. But what I am finding is that the process of becoming, might also ask me to develop the ability to unlearn, to assess what I was taught that is no longer true—to even consider if something I was taught was ever true to begin with.

Many years ago my friend Suzanne gave me a sock knitting class as a birthday gift. My teacher (and extremely patient woman) took us through the first foundational stitches—knit and purl. The second skill she taught us was how to “unknit”. It is important to learn from the start that it is impossible to knit without at some point unknitting. In the course of any knitting project there will inevitably be a moment when you realize that you misread the pattern, missed or dropped a stitch or lost count. This is when you unknit to the place where you went off course and start again from that point. There is no shame in realizing you need to recalculate. Ok, sometimes there is annoyance, but it’s not the end of the world, and I often learn something in the process.

I think the idea of “unknit” can apply to many skills or learning situations. Where do I need to retrace my steps? What happens when I look at what I’ve learned with the wisdom of time and more experience?