To confuse and to learn are similar

“Everything okay young man?” the bartender asked, now an elderly man with a long grey beard. 

“Yes?” I paused, “were you here when I sat down?” 

“I don’t know,” He paused. “You know,” he grabbed my empty glass “Once a man wrote about himself dreaming that he was a butterfly,” he opened a bottle of gin and as he poured it he said, “Maybe you’re a butterfly dreaming you are a man drinking.”

A child can grow into a man believing in God and die the same way what do you call that? 

Well I call that faith.

Even if the God never answered a single prayer? 

A God doesn’t have to answer a prayer for it to be real. A man only serves as much as he is capable of, perhaps the man was capable of nothing and the God never caved to any petty prayer. 

The man lived adoring his God, loved according to his laws and lived in a constant reminder of its power. He adored from sunrise till sunset and talked to it for what seemed like eternity. He gave sacrifices and followed quite exemplary its rules, from top to bottom. What do you call that then? 

Well if it never answered I would call it idiocy. 

The man read many books, followed many dogmas, questioned almost everything. He died with a cross in his hands and a prayer in his mind. He was well-read, lived a long life and knew much about little yet that little amounted to much. Is it still idiocy? 

If the man were to be smart then he wouldn’t follow blindly knowing too much. He either knew too much and understood little, or he spoke of knowing without never grasping the full context. A man can’t be smart when it follows blindly and he can’t know much when he only knows little. 

Much of a subject means mastery of a craft. Much of smithing means proficiency of the craft and mastery over it. You could know everything of something and nothing of others and still be on top when it comes to your talents. This man mastered much yet left alone much more. He can talk for hours and days on end about philosophy yet remains silent when someone talks about politics. He can name you every philosopher from Socrates to Marx even his own name should be up there. How can that be idiocy? 

Well, then I call it lunacy.