Wisdom: Hard to Write About

This is only the second Wisdom blogpost in over a year and you may find yourself asking, why frequent a blog which has such infrequent posts. That’s a question only you can answer; that’s up to you.

I’ve started multiple posts since I started this blog, only to come up blank. Not so much because of a lack of things to say, but finding myself coming to dead ends as I teased out the lines of thought I was pursuing. The topic of wisdom long proceeds me and will be around long after I’m gone, hence, the fact that I’ve written little is of no consequence. After all, remember, the intention of this blog is to explore the nature of wisdom, not to tell you what it is. This said, what prompted me to write this post? I think I have something useful to say.

One approach to discovering the nature of wisdom might be to start by looking at sayings and events that seem to portray it, and attempt to see what it is that they have in common that give them the appearance of being wise. To start off this exercise (so to speak) below is a list of sayings I believe some, even many, might consider wise:

• Where it comes to children, pick your battles.
• Measure twice cut once.
• You know it when you see it.
• There’s no fool like an old fool.
• A fool and his money are soon parted.
• Teach children how to think, not what to think.

I could go on, but I suspect I don’t have to. I think you get the point, Also, if none of the above sayings exemplify wisdom, you can still do the exercise. Just think of sayings you’ve heard that you’ve considered wise and start seeing if you can find some characteristic, or characteristics, they seem to have in common.

I close with one last thing, a question that has long been nagging me where it comes to wisdom. That is, do you think those honored with the title of being wise, think of themselves as wise?