Soulful Sundays: Fool

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool." -Richard Feynman

The Fool is the first card of the Major Arcana—the 22 archetypes of the tarot divination system. The Fool is first because it represents the beginning of the metaphorical quest through the arc of the deck, ending with union with the divine in the final card—the World. Interestingly, the Fool is also the trump card of the Major Arcana, reinforcing the idea that after attainment we must be ready to begin again. To face the unknown. To voluntarily return as the fool.

Humans were born to explore. In his book The Explorer’s Gene, Alex Hutchinson writes about our species’ bent towards voluntary expansion into uncharted territory. What began with our emigration out of Africa has culminated in our endless pursuit of knowledge of both the large and the small. From mapping the farthest reaches of space to describing the smallest elementary particles, we humans have demonstrated our unquenchable thirst for novelty—both for better and for worse.

We have evolved mechanisms of engaging with novelty. According to the “Wundt curve” of arousal, we are wired to avoid too much familiarity and also too much anomaly. The sweet spot is someplace in the middle. Finding this middle path is the quintessential quest. The way forward requires the hero to possess both knowledge of the past and the courage to engage with the unknown. It is the blending of the two that creates growth.

Exploration is inherently risky, but perhaps not as risky as isolation. Hutchinson explains that the reason why we are drawn to novelty is not because we are being reckless, but because we are actually being cautious. The more we understand about the world, the better we can make predictions about future risk, as the theory goes. However, this requires accurately interpreting the data, and not bending it to our biases, as the Feynman quote at the beginning of this post warns.

We live in an age of information. Thanks to the internet we are capable of finding answers to pretty much any question that we can posit. But finding and knowing are two very different forms of intelligence. In order to fully know something, we must experience it. It must be embodied. By vicariously living through our technology, we forfeit this important step of learning. We must remain vigilant of when we have become stuck in a rut, exploiting the same tactic to get marginal returns. At this point it is vital to surrender to humility and recite the Socratic oath, “I know that I do not know.” From there we can move forward again, with fresh eyes and an open heart.