There is a scene in the movie Used People in which a mother/daughter confrontation occurs. In the movie, the daughter - rapidly approaching middle age (whatever that is), divorced, mother of two children - is leaving home and heading for California to make a new life for herself and her children. Naturally, Mother objects. And as mothers sometimes do, she tries to lay a load of guilt on her daughter in order to force her to reconsider this foolish notion. The daughter, however, has learned a few tricks from mother dearest over the years. She tries to turn the tables and put mom on a guilt trip for a change. She accuses her mother of never being interested in what was going on in the daughter's life unless it was something that posed a threat to Mother's need for control. At this point, the mother, played by Shirley McClain, makes an interesting comment, expressing an attitude that is fairly common today. She says, "I knew everything about you that I wanted to know." In other words, there were enough things over which I had no control that hurt me as it was. So why should I open myself up to more hurt by finding out about MORE things over which I have no control? The mother obviously believed in the theory that says if ignorance is not bliss, it is at least less painful than full knowledge of the situation would be.

But, you know, I have found it to be just the opposite, at least for me. Ignorance rarely produces anything vaguely resembling happiness. To the contrary, ignorance is constantly frustrating, often embarrassing, sometimes costly, and always regrettable. So it surprises me to see how often we, like the mother in the movie, choose ignorance in order to avoid guilt or responsibility for our failures. When we choose to be ignorant, for example, about the possible consequences of making a mad dash across a busy city street in rush hour traffic, sometimes we pay a price for our ignorance. (But at least I got a pretty good weather change indicator out of it! The wrist that broke when I fell against the curb still aches every time a storm front moves in.)

A group of Pharisees, showing their ignorance by assuming that Jesus had some sort of political agenda ("Why else would he be touring the countryside, making speeches, and hugging all those children?") came to Jesus one day with a tricky question.