Every generation believes it understands reality.
And every generation eventually discovers that it didn’t.
For centuries, humanity accepted that the Earth was flat. It wasn’t a foolish belief. It made sense. From where people stood, the evidence appeared to support it. The ground beneath their feet felt flat. The horizon looked flat. Everything in their experience confirmed what they believed.
Then something shifted.
The evidence itself didn’t change.
The Earth had always been round.
What changed was perception.
Suddenly, the same world was seen differently.
The same stars.
The same horizon.
The same oceans.
But a new understanding revealed something that had been present all along.
Perhaps this is the nature of every breakthrough.
Not the addition of new truth.
But the breaking through of old certainty.
Maybe that is why we call it a breakthrough.
Not because something new is created.
But because something old gives way.
Thomas Kuhn, in his study of scientific revolutions, observed that we don’t simply add knowledge like bricks to a wall. Occasionally, an entirely new way of seeing emerges, and the old framework can no longer contain what becomes obvious.
No generation owns the truth.
We inherit a paradigm.
We live inside it.
And every so often, someone sees beyond it.
Yesterday, the Earth was flat.
Then it was round.
Tomorrow?
Who knows.
Perhaps the greatest obstacle to discovering something new is not ignorance.
It is certainty.
Because certainty closes the door.
Curiosity leaves it open.
And maybe that is why so many profound insights don’t arrive through force or effort.
They arrive when something softens.
When we become willing to entertain the possibility that the world is not precisely as we imagine.
Not wrong.
Just incomplete.
This is true not only in science.
It may be true in our personal lives as well.
How often do we look for evidence that supports what we already believe?
How often do we unknowingly live inside a world created by our own assumptions?
And how often do we fail to see something new because we are trying to understand it through yesterday’s understanding?
Perhaps we cannot see the evidence until there is a shift.
Not because the evidence wasn’t there.
But because we were looking through the lens of an old paradigm.
The world did not change.
Our perception did.
And maybe that is the quiet invitation life continually offers us.
Not to abandon what we know.
But to hold it lightly.
To remain curious.
To remember that reality has surprised humanity before.
And it will likely do so again.
Yesterday, it was a flat earth.
Today it is a round one.
Tomorrow?
Perhaps the wisest answer is simply:
We’ll see.
Much love,
Hey gang, I have been playing with producing videos again. I often think that I was born with a camera in my hand. Ever since my Dad let me take the 8mm movie camera to school (as long as I paid for the film), I’ve loved making videos with my friends. This was way before YouTube and TikTok! To edit the film, I would cut the scenes, tape them to a clothesline in the order of the storyboard, then tape them together for the final 3-minute movie. Fun stuff. Now with digital technology, most of that labour is done.
All a work in progress as I learn the software but have look at the latest shorts. Always appreciate a like and or a comment, just to help get the message out, and only if you think it is worth sharing.
