What is the very first image that pops into your head when you think of “the North Pole“?
It could be a vast desert of blindingly white ice. It might be a candy cane striped pole with a brass ball on top. Some might immediately imagine little elves in workshops. A scientist is likely to think of one of the high Arctic research stations and a marine biologist might imagine a beluga or narwhal. I imagine a lot of giant floating ice cubes.
The point being, as vast and barren as the North Pole is, how you imagine it depends on so many things. What we learned in school, what we’ve seen on TV, and what we’ve read about the North Pole in books are all things that have shaped our own perceptions.
But most of us, having never opted to select the Arctic as our Summer vacation getaway, will have a very narrow and relatively shallow view of what’s really going on up there.
And how could we? We don’t have the means to even consider such a trip, much less the motivation. It’s definitely not a place I care to waste my precious vacation time on!
So we’ve settled on what the North Pole is, each of us having a different idea of what that looks like. None of us have the full picture, and, because it has little bearing on our day to day lives, few of us will be bothered to pursue a better understanding of that frozen unknown.
That can also be said for just about everything. Our past experiences shape our understanding of everything we encounter, and for most of the things on this planet, what we actually have a good understanding of is just a tiny fraction of a percent of all there is to know.
It makes it difficult to have an informed opinion on things we know so little about. It’s definitely not fair to the thing we are judging! Like, maybe the North Pole is a great vacation spot, with its surreal landscape of fractured white ice, deep blue water, and the ability to always be looking South no matter which direction I face. Could be a life changing experience I’d normally have just discarded without a second thought. Funny how much we might miss by deciding we already know enough about something!
Warm regards,
Jimerson Adkins