If age and experience equaled wisdom, then all old people would be wise. Yet, some people are old but not wise. And some people are wise but not old. So, I’m wondering, what additional ingredients are needed yield wisdom?

This is the 24th Kaleidoscope Lens of 24 lenses. The last. 23 were completed in 2016 and there have been 23 months of featured excerpts sent as emails beginning in February 2017. However, I’ve been stuck with this one incomplete lens: Wisdom. I have collected a few short pieces written by others that I think are wise. I will most likely include them. But I haven’t felt I understand wisdom well enough to confidently fill many of the Wisdom Kaleidoscope pages with my own thoughts and experiences.

I’m reminded of the Afterward Kurt Vonnegut wrote in Free to Be, You and Me: “I’ve often thought there ought to be a manual for little kids, telling them what kind of planet they’re on, why they don’t fall off it, how much time the’ve probably got here, how to avoid poison ivy, and so on. I tried to write one once. It was called Welcome to Earth. But I got stuck on explaining why we don’t fall off the planet. Gravity is just a word. It doesn’t explain anything….”

That’s how I feel about wisdom. It’s just a word. It doesn’t explain anything. But I haven’t given up yet. Rather, I have questions:

What is wisdom? Who is wise? How do you know it when you ‘see’ it?

Can one person find another person wise even as someone else does not? How does that work?

Can one call oneself wise? If so, what happens to virtues like humility (for example)?

What else comes up for you related to wisdom and what it is or is not?

Perhaps you will help me complete this lens. I’d be most grateful to receive your thoughts. Just hit reply! I’ll let you know what I learn. And thanks in advance for engaging.

Sending Love and Blessings for 2019!

Barbara

Photo: In our kitchen