The Sunday Night Thinkpost - Wisdom
Dec. 6th, 2004 12:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penpusherI've had wisdom on my mind all weekend long. Partially because I'm having my remaining wisdom teeth removed in a quiet ceremony in about nine hours or so. But beyond that, the concept of what wisdom is and what it's all about is facing me.
Webster's defines wisdom with 4 words that aren't necessarily synonymous: Knowledge, Insight, Judgment and Sense.
Wisdom teeth are an interesting concept. One presumes that if you have lived long enough to get your wisdom teeth, you have also acquired a certain amount of wisdom. But, really that may not be true. Wisdom doesn't just grow into your head without you doing anything. You have to actually learn. It's something you have to actively do. You have to pay attention to the things that happen to you, to the things that happen to the people around you that you care about, to the stories in the newspapers, to the stories around your house. It's in listening, being attentive and in filing that information away that you can gain a certain knowledge of how the world works.
But there's a lot more than that. Once you get that information, you have to use it. Otherwise you're like an unread book. It just stays there, shut tight and unable to impart the wealth of learning to anyone else. So, again, there's a need to understand. When dealing with human relationships of all sorts, be they love, business, friendships or familial, keeping in touch with the feelings as well as the facts is a part of the story. It's not easy to keep the balance of what's "right" and what "feels right." It takes a very special insight on the part of the observer. But if that can be accomplished, a new level of understanding can be reached.
That balancing act is made more complicated, when you realize that the other people in the equation are also sizing you up and trying to understand your motives and methods as well. Suddenly, it's some big fencing match, where every move you make affects everyone else. Do you defend or attack? And is it really a game or does it just appear to be? So many questions to be answered and no one there to tell you what's right and what's wrong. You are forced to use your own judgment, and make a choice. It can be frightening, but making no decision is a decision itself, and that's not taking an active role in your own life.
Once you choose, you have to not only live with your choice, but you must own it. To do otherwise would mean that you didn't think it all the way through. You didn't plan it or consider the possibilities carefully enough. The very thought that you would take action without considering what would happen before it would deny all of the previous, and leave you with a situation that will show you to be less than wise. It takes a great amount of sense to grasp that. And why do they call it "common" sense? That's wishful thinking! We would hope that it's common, but the statistics prove otherwise.
So what does wisdom mean? It means learning things and using what you've learned to help other people. It means gaining perspective and both passing and receiving those perspectives around to the people you encounter. It means being able to make proper decisions both for yourself and for the people that you share this world. It means doing the things that are right, regardless.
Perhaps getting the wisdom teeth out mark the beginning of this process? If so, as usual, I'm late to the party. Hopefully, I'm not too late.
In other news, the first Holiday cards arrived... with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
meredith & heath (I guess I need to friend him!) getting the first one in the mailbox and weelisa beating the rest of the foreign mailings! As for the CD Scavenge, it's very appropriate that vfc got the first disc to me, since she was the one who brought the concept here. Haven't had a chance to listen (or read the track list!), Liza, but I hope to, some time early this week!
And, just to bring it all full circle: we have THIS, presented bychickenbutt73.
Have an enlightening week!
Webster's defines wisdom with 4 words that aren't necessarily synonymous: Knowledge, Insight, Judgment and Sense.
Wisdom teeth are an interesting concept. One presumes that if you have lived long enough to get your wisdom teeth, you have also acquired a certain amount of wisdom. But, really that may not be true. Wisdom doesn't just grow into your head without you doing anything. You have to actually learn. It's something you have to actively do. You have to pay attention to the things that happen to you, to the things that happen to the people around you that you care about, to the stories in the newspapers, to the stories around your house. It's in listening, being attentive and in filing that information away that you can gain a certain knowledge of how the world works.
But there's a lot more than that. Once you get that information, you have to use it. Otherwise you're like an unread book. It just stays there, shut tight and unable to impart the wealth of learning to anyone else. So, again, there's a need to understand. When dealing with human relationships of all sorts, be they love, business, friendships or familial, keeping in touch with the feelings as well as the facts is a part of the story. It's not easy to keep the balance of what's "right" and what "feels right." It takes a very special insight on the part of the observer. But if that can be accomplished, a new level of understanding can be reached.
That balancing act is made more complicated, when you realize that the other people in the equation are also sizing you up and trying to understand your motives and methods as well. Suddenly, it's some big fencing match, where every move you make affects everyone else. Do you defend or attack? And is it really a game or does it just appear to be? So many questions to be answered and no one there to tell you what's right and what's wrong. You are forced to use your own judgment, and make a choice. It can be frightening, but making no decision is a decision itself, and that's not taking an active role in your own life.
Once you choose, you have to not only live with your choice, but you must own it. To do otherwise would mean that you didn't think it all the way through. You didn't plan it or consider the possibilities carefully enough. The very thought that you would take action without considering what would happen before it would deny all of the previous, and leave you with a situation that will show you to be less than wise. It takes a great amount of sense to grasp that. And why do they call it "common" sense? That's wishful thinking! We would hope that it's common, but the statistics prove otherwise.
So what does wisdom mean? It means learning things and using what you've learned to help other people. It means gaining perspective and both passing and receiving those perspectives around to the people you encounter. It means being able to make proper decisions both for yourself and for the people that you share this world. It means doing the things that are right, regardless.
Perhaps getting the wisdom teeth out mark the beginning of this process? If so, as usual, I'm late to the party. Hopefully, I'm not too late.
In other news, the first Holiday cards arrived... with
meredith & heath (I guess I need to friend him!) getting the first one in the mailbox and weelisa beating the rest of the foreign mailings! As for the CD Scavenge, it's very appropriate that vfc got the first disc to me, since she was the one who brought the concept here. Haven't had a chance to listen (or read the track list!), Liza, but I hope to, some time early this week!And, just to bring it all full circle: we have THIS, presented by
chickenbutt73.Have an enlightening week!
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-05 09:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-06 12:41 am (UTC)You know what foreigners are like...
Date: 2004-12-06 05:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-09 10:28 am (UTC)