As I have gotten older I have gotten increasingly interested in the wisdom of elders. The wisdom of elders is pretty much silenced, marginalized, or sentimentalized in our current culture.
We live in a knowledge age where we do not lack for information. There is the internet and google and cell phones and text messages and 24 per day cable TV and movies and radio and all kinds of media. Our problem is not in not having information, but rather in knowing what information is important.
The best definition I have heard of wisdom is "knowing what matters". It takes a life time and plenty of reflection and examination of life to develop this kind of wisdom. Socrates said "An unexamined life is not worth living." I worry that not enough people live examined lives. If more people did live examined lives and we were more aware as a society we would not have most of the problems which we create for ourselves.
So, I am starting a new series on this blog today, tagged Wisdom of elders. I hope you will visit often and leave comments sharing your own wisdom with this blogs readers.
"As a grandfather, I'm entitled to a few words of advice to the young, based upon my long and unvarying experience as a transgressor. I can sum them up with these answers to the oft-repeated questions, "What would you do or not do if you had to do it all to do over again?"
I would spend more time with my children.
I would make my money before spending it.
I would learn the joys of wine instead of hard liquor.
I would not smoke cigarettes when I had pneumonia.
I would not marry a fifth time.
Directo/Actor, John Huston
This is article #1 on Widsom Of Elders.
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