Those who know it do not speak about it

My Twitter profile reads:

Sounding Board, Dad, FINA Referee (not in that order). Measure twice, cut once. I look to apply this in listening and speaking. Love twitter for listening.

It is a reminder to myself of the power of listening over speaking, and the humility of knowing that all of life is a learning journey.

Anna Kiesenhofer, the surprise winner of the Olympic cycling road race, is a wise woman:

Love this from Anna Kiesenhofer

"Now I‘m old, I’m 30, and I started to realise that all those people who say they know, they actually don’t know. Many of them don’t know, and especially those who say that they know, don’t know, because those who do know say that they don’t know.

— Simon Warren (@100Climbs) July 25, 2021

This then reminded me of verse 56 of the Tao te Ching. There are many translations of this, yet they all begin with the same couplet.

Those who know it do not speak about it.

Those who speak about it do not know it.

This then further reminded me of when I was refereeing swimming at the London 2012 Olympic Pool this past weekend. In a number of conversations with other officials, there were opportunities for me to speak from a place of knowledge. Sometimes I spoke, sometimes I remained silent. A few years ago I most likely would have always said something when I felt I had relevant knowledge to add. Somehow this felt different and a fresh learning.

in closing, I write to discover my thoughts, as I wrote about in this post. Today’s post is an example of that.