Recently,
I’ve been reflecting on the differences between the concepts of knowledge and wisdom. To those of you in
senior lit. this might sound familiar. This blog might seem somewhat out of
place from the other winter themed Newspaper blogs this month, but this prompt
from senior lit. got me thinking how to apply this concept to high school life.
Now I can
give you the standard dictionary definition of wisdom and knowledge that we’ve
all heard 100 times, so I’ll give you what pops into my head when I think of
them. Knowledge, in my mind, is
equated with facts, statistics, the ability to solve math problems, remembering
historical dates, and yadda yadda yadda. It does not usually require you to
search your soul and evolve as a person to truly understand, it just requires
you to remember. Not that this isn’t important, it’s just half of the equation.
The other
half is wisdom. Wisdom meaning that you’ve taken the stuff you’ve learned,
practical, vocational, and/or academic, and you think about what it means.
About yourself, about life, about who you want
to be as a person. What you want to do better. Wisdom is not blindly reciting statistics or facts; it’s being able
to take what you know and truly understand a situation in whatever context it’s
in.
Okay! Time
for a little social experiment. You ready? This might make you uncomfortable,
but that’s the point. This is a total, true to life application of this idea.
Right now,
think of a person that for whatever reason, you absolutely can’t stand.
Somebody that just grinds your gears,
rubs you the wrong way, or really fulfills any standard cliché for
describing somebody that annoys you. Got it? Okay.
Now think: what
do you think of them in terms of? What
do you think of when you think of them? The way they talk, the way they dress,
the friends they have, an off-kilter laugh, an odd mole, that they show up to
class late, or a story you heard about them?
These things
are your statistics on the person, and as we can all admit, some of them may or
may not be actually true. Nevertheless, these statistics represent what your
knowledge is of this person, from what you’ve observed and gathered, true or
not. Many choose to stop the process here, wanting to believe that truth lies
on the outermost surface of a person, which I’m sure we can all testify usually
isn’t true. Believing this is simpler and takes less effort, certainly. We all
do it now and again, and it isn’t a crime.
But there is a responsibility that comes with knowing that your “statistics”
on another person is only half of the
equation, half the process.
If you are
willing to take it a step further, continue.
Congratulations!
You’ve made it to the next level! *Mario 1-Up noises chime
in the distance*
So, with this person still in mind, I want you to think
again about wisdom. The second half.
Displaying wisdom in this situation means taking your basic knowledge of the
person and assigning causes and human value to it. In essence, what makes this person the way that they
are? Take what you know to be true about your own life, your knowledge your
own circumstances, and apply it when
you think about this person. There’s a lot more going on than what is always visible
on the surface of any given person’s life.
Taking time to think about what is going on below said
surface is not only practicing wisdom, but also basic human kindness and
empathy, which can go a long way, especially for people who need it. When you begin
to see the world through this lens of empathy, it’s very difficult to make it
go away, and that’s a really good thing. Your word will be used in the
direction of good, and not in a way that is mean to hurt another person.
One last thought to leave you with. This is a quote that has
somewhat haunted me for the past several years ever since I heard it.
“Great minds discuss
ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.”
-Eleanor
Roosevelt
Which one of these do you want to be? Stay wise, CHS.
No comments:
Post a Comment