I was skimming through one of Dr Myles Monroe's book, Understanding your purpose, and a quote caught my eye.
It is not what you don't know that hurts you. It is what you know that just ain't so.
Photo by Vadim Bogulov on Unsplash
Meditating upon this, two stories came to mind. I can't stop but wonder - the full extent of this quote is just exponential. The latter part of this quote is solid, but the former, I feel requires some adjustment.
First story
What you don't know hurts you. It's not dependent on if, might, or can, trust me, what you don't know will hurt you.
There was a time I felt 'what you don't know can't hurt you', I learnt otherwise the hard way.
2021, I traveled to Jos, a north-central city in Nigeria. I was there for an occasion and decided to stay for a while. Two days after my arrival, a person I greatly admire played host to me. All seems to be going well, conversations heated, until he asked me one question, "hey man, so what do you know about the history of South Africa?".
I only know the history of South Africa, partly, that relates to Nelson Mandela and nothing outside that. What I didn't know didn't just hurt me, in a Nigerian parlance it will be said, "it finished me".
You see, someone was looking for a writer to work with who was well informed about the history of South Africa - but that wasn't me. I was asked that question with the thought that I did know so I could take the gig, that incident spiked my interest through the roof, I came back and had my first history lesson of Nigeria - What Britain did to Nigeria (Max Siollun).
Second story
What you know that just ain't so will 'finish you completely'.
Three days ago, I stopped by a male saloon. While I was inside, a conversation was initiated by the boss about 'STDs and it's transmission'.
A older person was offering what seemed to be a form of counsel to the younger ones around. In his opinion, the male species are lucky when it comes to transmission of STDs. He said, "during mating, it's is difficult for a man to be infected except;
1. He has a cut on his genitals, or
2. He insist on thrusting even after his partner has dried up and he fails to use a lubricant."
The conversation seemed educative, yes, but it was built on two wrong assumptions. How he came about such absurd conclusions are just lamentable, for as good as his intentions were, he failed.
Someone amongst his audience will believe these are just the two ways STDs are transmitted during intercourse, not knowing that regardless of all, as long as there's unprotected penetration with an infected partner, it is done.
This same scenario happened between me and my brother, you can read it below.
Although he misinformed me, I corrected that mistake by seeking out the truth myself.