We think something so simple and so common necessarily means general knowledge. The writer Edilberto N. Alegre thought so in writing Sa Posporo Lang Namin Kilala si Rizal. Travelling between cities and municipalities, he observes the different designs and treatment afforded to the famous Rizal monument, which is almost a requirement for any town center to have. One Rizal monument, he observes, is less prominent than the terrain where it is erected, lowly-looking. Others are Westernized, wearing a thick coat in sweltering tropical weather. In other places, he takes on the colors of indigenous people. Others risk fancy and make him blue-green. Through the remark sa posporo lang namin kilala si Rizal (made by a municipal government clerk), the writer discovers that there were people who knew Rizal, the national hero, only as a face on a brand of matches.
The experience begs the question, one which is actually fundamental, do we really know after all? We confess we have opinions on most things (and people), but they are rarely comprehensive. The analogy of the iceberg really fits our epistemological experience. Again and again, we are confronted with the question, what do we actually know? Do we know Rizal as being himself a human person with his own questions and inner struggles, or do we view him simply as a cultural phenomenon overlooking our daily activities through eyes of stone?
Facts about Rizal range from the noble to the everyday to the downright weird, funny, and controversial, a person in every sense. He is a man of letters, a polyglot, a translator, a travelling man, an opthalmologist, a martyr. He is also a son, a brother, and a lover... of many. The person whose work and life I study the most is Soren Kierkegaard. I spent three years studying him before I learned to have a very simple idea of what he tried to do. And at this point I'm still trying to understand the man. I know learning isn't simple. I take my time (and I don't speed read). I don't want things that matter to me to be known at surface level. I can't accept having superficial knowledge. I don't want the conceit of feeling I have all the truth. I want my mind to be restful in totality.
When we encounter other's neglect, even ignorance, of very simple ideas like how people season Christian holidays with superstitious, folkloric or pagan practices or even as to the ends of science or their basic rights as citizens, the assumption that we have knowledge, and that everybody else is safely standing where they are, breaks down and is questioned. We are encouraged to search for truth beyond the comfort of commonly-accepted facts.
