It threw me for a loop, the first time I read it. And the second. And the third. It’s something that gets drilled into us a lot of the time, “be actively conscious with what you’re doing” and “make sure you are not doing things for the sake of doing things”, to the point of when we aren’t thinking/acting in that fashion we begin to worry if we’re doing things right.
Then I got thinking; this isn’t about that. Instead, it’s about how there’s some things which if we no longer need to actively think about, it frees us up to communicate with God. If something becomes as natural as breathing, we no longer need be concerned. It also points us towards not over thinking things.
I’ll share more later, once work settles down.
I find this section is applicable to all Rules, including those who are professed members of secular orders.
It makes sense to me.
For adults, learning can be broken down into four stages.
Unconcious Incompitence: this is someone who is incompitent, but they are unconcious of their incompitence. They are about to start something new, but are unaware of the enormity of what they are about to learn. The fifteen year old who is about to get behind the wheel for the first time is one example. The example I like to use is someone who is going skiing for the first time. They are excited about going skiing, and they know they have never skied before, but they don’t really understand the ammount of skill required and the time it takes to learn. They are unconcious of their true level of incompitence.
Concious Incompitence: This is the stage of learning where a person realizes what they don’t know. It is the point of greatest anxiety, and also the point of greatest learning. This is where most people’s eye’s glaze over in class because they are overwhelmed with the material and realize the enormity of what they have to learn. Using the skiing example, put that same unconciously incompitent person on the slope, strap the skiis to their feet, put the poles in their hand, and within about thirty seconds they will be truly humbled. They will be fully concious of their own incompitance. They don’t know how to ski, and boy do they know it as they slip and slide all over the place, unable to even stop themselves from sliding down the hill.
Concious Compitence: This is the stage of learning where the person knows what they are doing - compitence, but they have to think about every move - conciousness. Taking the skier again, after a while they are moving dow the slopes in a relatively controlled manner, but they have to think about where they plant the pole, the angle of the ski, and are concious of every move they make, thinking each one through before they make the move.
**Unconcious Compitence: **This is someone who does not have to think about what they do before they do it. This is Michael Jordan going for a layup. This is Tiger Woods on the putting green. This is someone pulling out in front of you after you have been driving for thirty years - you step on the brake, turn the wheel, reacting but not having to think about it first. This is me operating a manual transmission after 30 years of shifting up and down, literally millions of times.
This is a mature Christian, who is insulted, and immediately starts praying for the person who insults him, without having to remind himself to do so and fight his own desire to lash out.
When I read, “The rule allows us not to think about life”, I immediately thought of unconcious compitence. In “Praying with Benedict”, Korneel Vermeiren explains how prayer becomes a state, not an act, that one is in a constant state of conversation with God, without having to stop and think about whether they are praying or not.
Not having to think about what you are going to wear tomorrow is freedom. That’s why I lay out my clothes the night before. A monk is going to wear his habit. He doesn’t have to think about it. I also put out whatever is needed to make my breakfast in the morning, put my bible on the table to read, etc. It’s freedom, one less thing to think about. I have no idea if it is Dominican or not.
Sorry for rambling about nothing.
-Tim-
