As most people show, you don’t need to understand something to believe it; that was a personal problem to Czeslaw Milosz, starting in his youth:
I belonged to the boy scouts, of course. My experience of scouting was bizarre, because I joined the scouts when I was still a little boy and so I had no idea what was going on. That preyed on my mind. I knew you were supposed to act one way and not another. But why this way and not some other? There were some precepts, some oaths. . . . It was all so damned unclear! I know that we had to go on hikes and demonstrate proficiency in tying knots, all those things. Now, in reconstructing all that, I can more or less understand the state of mind of Catholics who believe without understanding what they believe. Knowing it was necessary, I was still constantly oppressed by a feeling of “why?” But I put that question aside and submitted.
(Quoted from page 21 of Conversations with Czeslaw Milosz, by Ewa Czarnecka and Aleksander Fiut. Harcourt Brace Javanovich, 1987.)
For a brief biography of Czeslaw Milosz, click here. For images of or relating to Czeslaw Milosz, click here.
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