Pockets

I used the word "waked" today. Someone gently corrected my word to "woke." I did explain that the word had certainly been regularized over time and that some dialects had kept the old form of the past tense. Words in past/perfect tense do change. "Swum" has become "swam;" "dove" and "diven" have both become "dived;" "stricken" has become "struck." However, the person doing the correcting did not have exposure to history of the English language or to other dialects outside of her own. But it certainly reminded me of any other belief I may hold. If I haven't exposed myself to other viewpoints, I probably don't have total truth. Notions are cheap because they have not been plied by experience or research or other people's knowledge. It is so dangerous to live in pockets of little exposure. Ignorance is bliss only if we don't get out much.