Caltrops - Rants - Re: The Price of Wisdom?

Forum Overview :: Rants

by veronica 01/26/2003, 2:29pm PST

Wisdom is the ability to take knowledge, and make connections. I spent 30 years accumulating facts, experiences, and simple lessons. I have led quite a full life, much of it due to my (unknown at the time) mental illness. Now 31 and medicated, I can look back on all I have learned and memorized, experienced and seen others experience, and I can make connections that I would not have been able to make 10 years ago. I did not learn these connections from an outside source; I learned the pieces from outside, and internally I made the connections.

So what has it taken for me to connect the dots? I don't believe that all of my wisdom came out of pain. Many of the lessons I learned were the result of a painful episode, and some of the resulting wisdom came through painful realizations. But I do not believe that wisdom itself is solely derived from pain. One piece of wisdom applies to several situations, and therefore must be "learned" from several experiences.

I do not know specifically which experiences of yours are currently having their anniversaries, but I know several things you have been through, LC. How many things in your past are you focusing on that are positive? I have gained wisdom from positive events. I have, for instance, seen other ill people heal themselves, and have learned from their experiences. These types of things do not always come to mind, because recalling them is not unpleasant. Thinking about the bad memories is more traumatic, and perhaps to try and help heal yourself, you are thinking about what you might have learned from those situations - what positive things that you can carry out of the situations. No one wants to think that they went through a painful time for nothing, right? And knowledge or wisdom would be at least something to bring out of those negative times.

You grow wiser with age because you are able to make more of these connections. You have been through more experiences, and learned more basic knowledge. As you get older, you are less able to remember detail, but you don't need as sharp a picture if you can extrapolate what the story in the picture is. I know when I think back on younger times, I think, "Why wasn't I able to connect point A to point B?" And now I have more of that ability.

The pain is there, but that's not the only place from where wisdom comes. Look to all of your experiences.

v