The independence of the curious spirit

The way in which we see a situation, the way we describe it, what stands out to us, is unique to each person alone. The desire to see situations as everyone else does can be the sign of a spirit undertaking its great education - recognizing our own ignorance, we desire to understand what others see, what the best wisdom of the world has come up with hitherto. In other souls, this desire speaks to wanting to fit in, to huddle close to those in society, and to live protected in the warmth of the mass. Thus it sacrifices independence for safety, for "getting along with ones equals", for being a part of "polite society".

Where this tendency is the first step in the general education of the spirit, of the spirit that desires to know and craves knowledge and understanding (this type of organism has found its advantage in knowing reality), value judgements will begin to be made as to the worth of these different opinions and to the nature of the spirit that espouses them. The curious one will begin to find specific minds it wishes to model itself upon, as it sees a species of truth contained in those minds that it wishes to model, to live within, to adapt its own thinking around - and if one is lucky, to grow beyond.

Each mind that likes to try on a variety of different modes of thought is consciously or unconsciously building a network of relations between ideas - it tries to model the world, drawing and building connections of the best ideas that have ever been thought, in order to grasp what is. Anyone who has grown their spirit within a particular worldview understands the daunting nature of this task - one always stands before world views as before vast forests of dense ideas - ones that harbour more than one hidden nook, more often than not replete with a hidden beast or two to slay. It is a long journey to build a worldview, with few guides to help you on the way.

It is surprising, perhaps, for this type of spirit to recognize (ever so slowly), that his is the business of very few - to him, the intoxicating feelings of love and hatred engage his energies so much towards his task that he can barely understand why others don't do the same. The differences in personality and rank of spirit begin to become facts that he begins to know - and yet how poorly they are understood!