First, let me say how grateful I am to have someone even raise a question like that.
If you know me and suspect that's sarcsam, it isn't.
And given my propensity to overthink things, it should be no surprise that I am still pondering the question:
What is wisdom?
In the context in which the word came up Friday night, my Mac dictionary says
the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment
Being wise doesn't mean being infallible. We should accept that even our wisest men and women will sometimes be wrong.
I have in my mind a concept of what a wise person should be like. Wise people are always serene. They rarely speak, but when they do speak, their words are always carefully considered and usually heeded. But that's just my concept, and it's more informed by characters in fiction, I'm afraid, than anyone I've known in reality. Remember the old woman who lived in the Nebraska cornfield in 'The Stand'? She was wise.
But what about real life? Where are the wise people in our world? I'm having a hard time thinking of any as I sit here.
One might also assume that a wise person leads an exemplary life. We would disagree, though, on what constitutes an exemplary life. The life of the Dalai Lama? Of Warren Buffett? Keith Richards? Okay, not Keith Richards. How about Jimmy Carter?
Buddhists sometimes refer to someone who has 'crazy wisdom.' At one time, this meant the person understood the dharma and followed the precepts, but lived an otherwise eccentric lifestyle. But in contemporary times, 'crazy wisdom' seems to have become sort of a euphemism for 'fucked up.' Roshi thinks he's risen above the precepts, transcended the dharma, and now he can do any damn thing that pops into his head and it's okay. Is that wisdom? Not to me. The defintion says, 'good judgment.'
Again, I am reluctant to get involved in organized belief systems, and that's part of the reason why.
But your mileage may vary.
There are also some Buddhist and Taoist proverbs to the general effect that a person who considers himself wise almost certainly isn't.
That's one I don't have to worry about. My ego would like me to be seen as a wise man, but the overwhelming evidence to the contrary prevents me from falling into that error.
This is going to be another of those posts that rambles on for awhile and then just peters out.
Sorry.
3 comments:
I'm still overthinking it, myself.
I said the other night that I thought wisdom was knowledge plus bitter experience.
My example goes like this: Jesus said "a kind word turns away wrath." There's something wise in that saying, I say to myself. At this point, I have knowledge. The next day, I'm at that point where an argument is about to break out and I try to bully my way through by being the one who shouts the loudest and I get a black eye for my trouble. Bitter experience. The next time I'm near an argument, I try to say something kind and thoughtful and helpful and we come to an agreeable compromise of positions. Now, if I follow the path of saying kind words consistently in order to avoid the black eye and to get the agreeable compromise, I've acquired wisdom.
For me, to merely know the right thing to do is only knowledge. It's not wisdom until you've learned the lesson and follow the wise thing you've learned with action in conformity to the knowledge, and that will almost never happen without the bitter experience of doing the unwise thing.
What's biting me in the ass is whether one can go about the task of becoming wise or if it's something you're destined to discover or if you can study for the examination that life gives us periodically or ... what?
There is certainly, to me, an epiphany or enlightenment or some kind of extraordinary insight that goes into wisdom. Part of that is articulation: we don't recognize wisdom, as a rule, unless it's put to us in a succinct way. At times, perhaps, people can learn wisdom through example, but that's where I part company with some of the wise. I think most folks must have it spelled out for them. The tradition of the koan is a kind of medium between the two, and a bit of wisdom in itself, much like Socrates asking his infernal questions of the Athenians.
It would be wise of me not to speak for Little Miss Sunshine, but I'm not wise and I'm going to try. After she tells us the only wisdom worth knowing is that we're all going to die, I think she would say that wisdom begins with skepticism. It's not likely one will discover wisdom by accepting cultural norms without some hard questions about what the hell we're doing.
This all got started for me with a random email from someone I didn't know who had sent an email that got forwarded to me. At the end of the email was a quote from the Bible's book of Proverbs, often cited as a collection of Solomonic wisdom. I got started thinking about what was in my library I could look into for wisdom. A short cut I hoped to match with my experienced foolhardyness. I thought I'd already had a lot of bitter experiences, maybe I could read some knowledge and, poof, instant wisdom.
Not sure it works that way, but that's how I got started on this quest.
I'm like MCARP in that I'm no so sure I could sit down and make a list of wise people alive today. It seems to me that wisdom has fallen out of favor as a goal, when at one time, it was every older man's intended legacy. Nowadays, we don't seem to pass along wisdom to children and grandchildren. We're just glad to see them out of the house or out of college or whatever, they're on their own now.
Relativism and deconstruction seem to negate wisdom, but it seems a poor trade to me.
I'm still ginning about it. I'll get back to you, wise guy.
blogblah
Oz never did give nothin' to the Tin Man that he didn't already have.
Before [insert goal here], chop wood, carry water.
After [goal achieved], chop wood, carry water.
Even later, Natalie Wood, Cary Grant? No. So quit worrying about it.
Too much worry makes the journey un-fun.
And now it's time for my coffee.
Oh, and thanks for the Dreamweaver tip yesterday.
What is the Dream Weaver tip?
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