Given my love for language, it should come as no surprise that one of my favorite classes in High School was Spanish. And although Spanish is a romantic and beautiful language, I felt it had potential for even a LITTLE MORE spice and zest…so during class, I would convert nouns into verbs and then conjugate them as the context dictated. For instance, the Spanish word for “sausage” is “salchicha,” so naturally the infinitive verb “to sausage” would be “salchichar.” Similarly, the word for “wolf” is lobo, so “lobar” would be “to wolf.” But “lobar” is exciting, since it’s a STEM-CHANGING verb in the first-person singular yo form. So to say, “I wolf every day” (which is certainly a lofty goal), you would say, “Yo luebo todos los dias.” Ole!
And a wide swath of new verbs with novel, yet consistent, conjugations would often end up in my writing and my oral presentations…and coincidentally, I would sometimes end up kicked out of class and in the hallway when these innovations were not appreciated.
But some well-known actual Spanish verbs are saber and conocer. And both verbs mean “to know.” But these verbs illustrate the difference between knowing ABOUT someone and truly KNOWING someone. Saber is head knowledge…conocer is HEART knowledge…and without conocer, there isn’t even the possibility of truly loving (amar-ing). (I apologize in advance for not conjugating these verbs properly…the point of this is not to teach a course on Spanish grammar).
The point is that, in this world, many people don’t really saber much of anything as they robotically gravitate towards the shiny idols of prestige, prosperity, and promises of fulfillment that perpetually slip through their fingers. And they certainly miss out on conocer-ing anyone as they pedantically pursue the mirage of self-actualization. These folks often heartlessly wound others with their egocentric endeavors and they don’t even saber that they’re leaving a trail of blood in their selfish wakes. That’s sad.
And this all-important topic of knowledge, intimacy, relationships, and love also applies to truth. It’s one thing to saber truth. Do you conocer the Truth? And has the Truth set you free? Because only then can you truly conocer amar.
