Friday, October 21, 2005
Finding Wisdom
This quote from Calvin Seerveld attempts to explain how one attains wisdom. He says that wisdom is not gained from being taught, but by being around people who are very wise. This may explain why there is no Wisdom 101 class, it’s because there is no foolproof way to give a person wisdom. This is a very good statement to explain the origin of wisdom because wisdom is not something easily achieved.
I agree with this statement strongly because it seems oftentimes that people are looking for a quick and painless way to become wiser. This does not work though, because wisdom is something that comes over time through many different experiences. A person cannot become wise by sitting in his or her house and reading Wisdom for Dummies all day long. Wisdom comes with experience from situations of each and every kind. A wise person knows how to look at problem, knows how to deal with it, and what the consequences are because they have been there before. Many times people will be ignorant and decide that what is best for them is the wisest choice. This is often not true because that decision affects others in ways that we did not expect. This kind of ability to see from different viewpoints comes over time by spending time with others.
Wisdom is a very contagious thing. From personal experience I can say that the kind of people you hang around with directly affects your maturity level. If you are constantly with a group of irresponsible morons, then your wisdom level will be very low. This kind of surrounding will lead us to make poor choices and will pull our life down. By having wise people around us, we will see the positive results that come from the choices they make. We obviously want to have good things happen as a result of our decisions, and will imitate them. That is how wisdom rubs off on people. They see the great things that happen from making wise choices, and want that for themselves. This explains why old people are wiser that us, it is because they have had more experience and opportunities in different situations than ourselves.