012 Incognito

012 Incognito

This is an interesting word. From the Italian, we put together a prefix that means ‘not’ and a root word that means ‘recognized or known’.  An insightful, descriptive word that is frequently encountered in our language.

Let’s suppose you are talking with a new employee who is affable, polite, and interesting. The discussion continues to reduce our suspicions of this stranger. Over many company meetings and working together on projects, a friendship develops. There was absolutely nothing to hint that the new employee was working ‘incognito’ as an industrial spy. 

In the above paragraph, we didn’t see that our colleague was working incognito. We sometimes assume things about people based on stereotypes or preconceptions. At times, we don’t even realize that we have these biases. Our suspicions of others have many triggers: different language, unique or opposing attitudes and views, even the type of clothing that is over/under/differently worn. We don’t realize that these persons may be an incognito part of our journey.

Are we predisposed to suspect that some animals, plants, people, and thoughts may be harmful to us? Yes, it seems that way. If you add cautions from the culture, political directives, science ‘facts’, religious edicts, and folklore handed down from generations, there is certainly a disinclination to accept something that is different. On the one hand, this ‘auto rejection’ has built-in directional safeguards guiding one to a safe haven. However, these predisposed tenets often prevent one from ‘hearing or perceiving’ a crucial, directional shift of human consciousness on any given subject.

It seems that our world today has billions of audible, visible, and published thoughts and viewpoints on limitless topics. Consuming great quantities of indiscriminate information seems to have the same consequence as overeating: continuous need for reinforcement, lethargy, addiction to narrow views, and somewhat helpless in realizing that their consumption choices have harmed their life’s journey.

An excerpt from Mark Twain might apply here (the word Journey substituted for emphasis):

“Travel (Journey) is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. “
― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad / Roughing It

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Physics teaches us that there is a resting force that must be overcome to move an object from a static to a kinetic position. May we expect parts of our journey to be similar?

How do we expand our built-in tendencies to ‘not journey’ e.g. stay within our comfort zone?

Have you even been asked a kind of question by a child or person and given a quick, standard reply? Not listening to the ‘incognito’ aspect of the messenger?

Is Journey an antidote for:  “they have ears and can’t hear, eyes and can’t see”?