I like the definition of this word that is posted in Wikepedia (using various references):
Wisdom, sapience, or sagacity is the ability to contemplate and act productively
using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight. Wisdom is associated with
attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowledge, self-transcendence and non-attachment, and virtues such as ethics and benevolence.
It suggests that wisdom is complex and develops over time.
When I think back to my teens and early twenties, I had
some knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. I was able
to base my actions on this for good or ill. And so it goes throughout life – we
experience and learn much, and if we are open to the process of self knowledge,
we can apply all this to our lives. However, if our experiences are limited,
this may also limit our wisdom.
As I age, I’ve been thinking particularly of what I didn’t
know about aging, which didn’t give me as much empathy as I’d like to have had
(in retrospect) when dealing with my aging parents. I was very young (seven)
when we left Germany and so wasn’t able to observe for very long my grandfather
(who was the only grandparent I had left) as he aged.
In my early university years, I was sometimes appalled by
and not sympathetic to ways that adults reacted to or interacted with younger
people. As I grew into adulthood, I experienced situations from the other side
and had more empathy for the adults I’d once criticized.
How do we develop unbiased judgement and compassion?
Partly, I think, it’s what we experience, what models of behaviour we are
exposed to through parents, teachers, relatives and friends. It seems to me
that openness to others and to new experiences develops best if we are exposed
to a variety of people and experiences as we grow and develop. Let us not get
stuck in believing that we know best, that there is only one way to approach
any situation.
The arts can help greatly in this process: many topics
explored in books, plays, music, films, etc. can give us fresh insights.
I’m not against critiques, seeing wrongs and speaking out
about them. I do want to continue to be compassionate and empathetic, to be
open not only to new experiences for myself but also to be open to hearing others’
stories of their experiences so that my world view continues to grow.
I also think it’s important not to be hard on myself for what
I didn’t know in the past. That can’t be changed.
One of the things that I always hope to do as a writer is
to share the stories I’ve experienced, have come across, or have imagined.
