One of the greatest ironies of life is we are aware of existence because in the background is nonexistence.

If there was no nonexistence, then I could not be conscious of existing. Such irony, like many forms of irony, depends upon a gap or a separation between things: an emptiness. There is a gap between myself and others that allows me to know that I am not others. There is a gap between my existence and nonexistence which allows me to know I exist. There is a gap between my thoughts, the moments of my considerations, that allows me to hold different thoughts and be aware of my thinking.

Is this gap the greatest irony of life and the main thing that made Socrates so wise? Maybe it is not the greatest, but the first. We only know things well when we know the gaps that compose our knowledge, the gaps that are our ignorance. Socrates knew his ignorance. He knew, and we know with him, that the wisest people among us are those who know when to keep silent.

God’s Human Future: The Struggle to Define Theology Today
David Galston

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