Filed under: life
I’m not a professional in any area of expertise. I don’t know a lot about anything. I’d like to say that in my best moments I may know a little about a lot of things, but not a lot about any one thing in particular. It seems I often try to give the impression that I am well versed on the subjects those around me know about. When in a situation where there are people speaking of something that everyone but me seems to have a PhD in, I fake it. I pretend and go along as if I know what they are talking about. I nod and offer up the occasional and ever-so eloquent “uh-huh” acting as if I actually have a clue as to what is going on. I think, or in the very least hope, that I am not the only person who does this.
I have somewhat recently come to realize that this action of pretending to know a lot about something I know nothing of is rather dishonest. More than that, I feel as though doing this kind of stuff is tiring and a waste of time. If I am in a group of people who are informed on a subject that I am not, I no longer play along. I plainly state that I have no expertise on the topic at hand and if someone would like to fill me in I allow them to take it from there. After taking on such a truthful role, I have come to realize how childish it was of me to ever pretend to know something I didn’t simply for fear I would be deemed unworthy of my company.
You know how sometimes we catch ourselves saying the same stupid sayings over and over until they seem to no longer have their original meaning? These catchphrases are usually contagious and spread like scabies through a fraternity house. Usually by the time we realize that we are constantly uttering these sayings we also realize just how annoying they are and try to stop this habit. Perhaps unfortunately for those who spend a decent amount of time around me, I have recognized my catch phrase and I will not let it go. I hope it spreads. My saying is “I don’t know what that means.” I say it all of the time and have learned so much since I started saying it! It is phenomenal the amount information that those around you carry.
“Lindsey Lohan got arrested again for killing another orphan baby.” “What?! Another? That cute little girl from The Parent Trap back in the ‘90’s is now killing orphans? What the hell? She gets to spend time with both her British mother and American father and her twin sister; it was such a happy ending. Why is she killing people?” “You didn’t know?!??! Have you been living under a rock? It has been all over the news and radio, don’t you watch the news?” (They try to play it off like I am a bad person for not knowing she’s a murderer.) “Well, no I don’t watch the news. I get e-mails from the BBC. (I figure if any American news is worth knowing it will make its way across the Atlantic.) But did you hear about the Turkish Foreign Minister saying that he will run again for presidency. It’s been raising fears of a new showdown with secular and army critics. Apparently a pretty big deal over there.” “I don’t know what that means.”
And the motto has caught on.
“I don’t know what that means.” Try it out, you just might learn something (and hell we all know we have things that we need to be learning). While this phrase may not make you a connoisseur, which I still dream of being on any subject, it may open your eyes to quite a few things.
