The Fog

Wisdom is this curious thing that is cumulative (you have to put a lot, quantity-wise, in), and yet it is reductive (you get very little, quantity-wise, out). But maybe one of the highest forms of wisdom comes only when you identify (and better, truly internalize) the implications of this pattern:

1. You don't get to know a thing gradually, despite what it might feel like. Rather, for a long time, you are incorrect in thinking you know it to some degree when you don't really know it at all; then, in what feels like only the last little push to get to the top of the hill, you quite suddenly come to know it completely.
2. Oh, but you can never know if you are at the top of the hill. 
3. Further, you probably love to believe you are always at the top of the hill, because it feels satisfying.

A conundrum.