Wisdom

The other day a friend called me wise and it made me chuckle. Then a while later, I wondered what caused me to laugh when somebody used the word “wise” in a sentence with my name in it. It legit kind of made me uncomfortable. A man who possesses as high a regard for sophomoric humor as I do, can’t possibly be wise.

Maybe it's also because I always assumed that it’s something certain people are born with. Real wisdom more or less just emanated from scholarly sorts or people with deep eyes and furrowed brows. Folks who talked softly while looking off into the distance as those around them waited with bated breath, slow-nodding with contemplative eyes after the completion of each mind-expanding dissemination.

Or, you had to be really old. Not some middle-aged dude with an appreciation for dick & fart jokes, who regularly uses the word “dude.” But it did get me thinking about what wisdom is and how one goes about acquiring it.

I did some Googling and found this. Confucius said, "By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest." Well, damn. I feel that. Perhaps due to my noble bitterness, I’m beginning to stockpile some wisdom after all. I don’t know. I still can’t shake the feeling that I’m not wise so much as just regularly wounded or traumatized enough to be anecdotally useful to others.