The Fire That Survives The Water（水也灭不掉的火）
The title was quoted from JJ Lin's song. Although the song has nothing to do with this article, I have to say that JJ's songs have always been an inspiration for me.
The title is rather metaphorical and contains a logic that seems to defy the natural law. What is the natural law if it cannot be used to serve for our human's predication? So, the law is extracted from our collective human experience and serves for the benefit for the late-comers who can learn the world through the knowledge gained by our ancestors. But what about the rest? Not everyone believes in law and not every law is convincing enough to reach the status of consensus. This is where the beauty resides.
If knowledge gained through learning from knowing constitutes a rather systematic and predictable part of our education, knowledge collected from experiencing is a more spontaneous and adventurous part of our education. Luckily, we are permitted to gain unlimited access to it. This is a blessing.
We are taught to be reflective of our life and to live our lives with a clear purpose. As true it is, sometimes we can feel that there is just not much to be reflective about, not to mention that the majority of us do not have a clear purpose for our life. As much as schools will teach us the rules and the laws that govern this world, much knowledge can not be acquired from our time in schools. I would like to call those knowledge experiential knowledge. To gain experiential knowledge, the requirement is experience rather than knowing. Therefore, the reason that we may feel there is not much to be reflective about is because we have not had enough experience --- We are driving a car without enough fuel and of course, you won't like to drive that car too far as you would only start to realize that the car is compromised as it has farther deviated from the actual track.
Had the lessons we have learnt from external sources through advice and persuasion been water, it can not quench the fire that has been ignited by the life we are constantly living in. Life is the experiential fire that survives the water of theoretical knowledge. Sometimes, it is best to be silent when we are confused rather than trying to make sense of things using our past knowledge, either experiential or theoretical. To live without full mastery calls out courage, the courage to treat our life as if it does work on us rather than the other way around --- Let our life carries us for a bit: it is easier sometime to be a free-rider than always sitting in the driver seat and being the controller. This is my philosophy now, as someone who just gets out of college and enters the world of banking.
Much to be learnt, through hearing, thinking, and most importantly at this stage of life, experiencing and participating --- to live on FIRE.