For with much wisdom comes great sorrow. the more knowledge, the more grief... Ecclesiastes
I didn't put that together until today. My idea of wisdom was a mix of the up side of growing older with the idea of being a smarter person. Never thought about the downside of a lifetime of experiences.
One would imagine that after a certain experience, or at the very least, after 2 or 3times of the same... we would be doing the experience smarter, better, faster while avoiding each and every pitfall. Still not sure that isn't true but like all things in Life, for every upside, there may be a downside, lurking close by.
For me, it is not so much as downside as being able to be Real about life and all that goes with it. Argumently easier for those who sees the Glass As Half Empty, we don't expect a rainbow in every sky or even as much as we wished, a VW bug in every driveway. Bad things happen to everyone, the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Prayer is not a guarantee against all things BAD and then sometimes, for no apparent reason, everything is perfect.
While it would appear that I abhor All Things Grownup, the idea of being wiser seemed like a nice trade off for getting older. Common sense should have told me, that I was missing Something. I should have seen that just the pure nature of living through many experiences, there would be grief and sorrow. None of us can avoid G&S, so we have to learn how to incorporate them into our lives. How to co-exist and even continue on when we are so filled with sadness has to be where the wisdom comes in and becomes useful to ourselves and others as we share it.
So, I had to decide today whether to keep aiming for wisdom. With this new knowledge in hand, it seemed like a choice had to be made. It didn't take long to figure out that things are going to be coming my way, no matter what and I might as well get all the help I can. The perfect example of wisdom used wisely. Make no mistake, you can live to be old and not have a bit of anything to offer to anyone. My biggest fear is that my wisdom shared, will hurt someone. That may have to be the chance I have to take if I share but hopefully, I will recognize, apologize and course-correct. Maybe Some Good Stuff has sunk in...
