FINAL WORDS

THE GIFT

As we come to the end of our journey together, do you remember the beautifully wrapped gift you received at the start of the book? What did you decide to do – open it or leave it wrapped?

In the Ancient Greek myth of Psyche and Eros, Psyche is given several impossible tasks by Aphrodite. If she completes them, she is allowed to be reunited with her lover, Eros. Psyche’s last trial is to descend into the Underworld and to request a perfume box from Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, which holds the secret to her beauty. This was no small feat as very few people returned from the Underworld. Psyche convinces Persephone to give her . There is one condition, though - she must not open it. Even though Psyche is told not to open the box she is unable to live with the mystery – she can’t resist, she must know what the secret is inside. On her way back from the Underworld, she opens the box. As she does so she falls unconscious.

Regardless of the effect of opening the box, Psyche’s story demonstrates how powerful our desire to know is. It can even overtake our reason and cause us grief. It is a reminder of the powerful force we have to contend with when we engage with Not Knowing. The question for us is how do we react to Not Knowing? Do we accept it, engage with it, and make the most of it? Sometimes there is more value in sitting with Not Knowing -in leaving the gift wrapped.

Not Knowing may seem hard to bear, it can feel heavy, leaving us with worries and uncertainties. Yet perhaps it is also a gift that the all-knowing gods envied. To be human is to live with mystery, with the unknown. We are blessed with the gifts of curiosity, wonder, excitement and possibility. Perhaps in the end we will discover that this is the real gift of Not Knowing.

“It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.”

Wendell Barry, The Real Work