Wisdom

LutaWicasa

Member
While we certainly have gained from Technological innovation when it comes to examining the past and to some degree while trying to see into what is to come.; I feel we need to make a distinction between fact, acquiring and knowing fact, and wisdom.

Wisdom puts us into the proper relationship to fact. If we know it's going to rain, wisdom, not fact, tells us to bring an umbrella. Fact can't tell us that. Fact can only say what is, it can't tell us what we should do about what it.

If wisdom is open to individual interpretation...Is it still wisdom?

The fact is that it is raining, this not open to interpretation, it's simply raining. This is not wisdom, it's simple observation of fact.

So there we sit in the rain. One might suggest we use the rain to wash our selves...but it's also freezing cold.
And we might grow ill. Another suggests we play in the mud, but if we do we end up freezing in the rain.

Another suggests we get inside and be warm. Clear sighted, but not wisdom, just common knowledge, a normal An immediate response to circumstance.,

Someone says we need to get to the river as the water will rise and we need to shore up our defenses. We can dry our selfs later and our labor will warm us though the day.

all responses are based on the fact that it is raining. But the wise response takes a hold of the facts
Then looks beyond the immediate to see consequence!

Seeing the consequence of each suggested course of action
and bringing oneself into alignment with the way the world is moving (It's raining)
in order to make best use of the time (the river is rising)

To see beyond the immediate moment (it's raining) to see what is going to arise out of that moment
(The river will rise) and to work within what we know (We need to shore up our river banks.)

This is wisdom. Because it is wisdom, it is uncommon, for it sees into what is to come and
and gives man a path to go forward even in the most difficult of circumstance.

Wisdom works from and has it's basis in fact. Wisdom must first know what the case is, before it can bless us with the knowledge of how best to relate to what is.

Wisdom lies in first knowing what really is the case, then devising a way to make the best use of "what is" to further human well being.
Not all interpretations are capable of this, only the wise see what is in terms of what was and what will be. Only the wise live in all three worlds (Past, present and future)

it is fortunate the unwise benefit from wisdom even it they don't possess it. The guy that wanted to play in the mud benefits as much as the wise from turning instead to work on the river banks.

I hope you don't perceive my view as being in disagreement with your own.
I wish only to complement, not disagree with you view. See it as an add on! ":O}

Wisdom would have been to shore up our banks before the rain....rain will always come.
In this immediate case, wisdom would dictate moving ourselves to higher ground for safety's sake to later clean up and shore up the banks in the event of future rains ;)
 
Living in Seattle...I should have known this! Now I do!

Next time I'm caught in the rain...Your my man! ":O}

Wait! What if they are new to the area and there is no higher ground, what about that!

And why don't these stupid people get back into the boat that brought them?

And if they have a boat why are the sitting in the rain?

Did I mention that wisdom is uncommon? ":O}
 
Agreed... Common Sense has turned into opinion and self-truth. We are so individualistic that we won't even believe the truth anymore because we don't like it or it doesn't suit us.
 
I think that's always been the problem Booman.
The divide between what we know is true and what we want the truth to be.

We all face this and only the few find their way past personal desire
to embrace the good without reservation.

But we are not helpless in the face of this truth! We were given arms to combat all selfishness
and misplaced desires.

We were given something truly holy.
Sacrificial Love annihilates self deception.
That Selfishness That grabs at everything and Smothers our hearts in dark desires dragging the unwary away from their very friends and family; and away from truth.

Sacrificial love shows us how we open our hands to our brothers and close our minds to
the deception of selfish desire.

Leaving evil thoughts to bleed in our wake.

There is always a way, a path to truth.

Nothing can stop the loving sacrifices we make for each other.

Nothing can hide the good from a Sacrificial heart.
 
My understanding of many, many things is shallow. I understand that motherhood is sacrifice yet "loving sacrifices that we make for each other" is not real clear for me to see. Apologies oh wise ones.
 
Hi George,

I will have to concede Sacrifice isn't always apparent.
Isn't always there for that matter.
Let's start with good manners. When we restrain ourselves so that others
benefit
As simple as leaving the last piece of cake or chicken for another who wants it or who might want it.
Evey time a cop holds his or her fire in a dangerous situation.
Every time some one gives up a kidney to save a stranger.
Every time a fireman climbs that ladder into smoke and flames.

One reason we don't see sacrifice as often as perhaps we should is that sacrifice takes place in the heart.
We often don't know what another has done for us or what it cost them to do it.

But forever and always the easiest way to see sacrifice is to make one..
Sacrifice is not rare, it's often a daily occurrence within the family.

Just look at the efforts of our Administrators who have yet to make a dollar.

Lastly despite all of man's failings, heaven shows the soul of man almost infinite mercy
Where as Nature shows man only the law.
Sacrifice is a part of our lives or we soon parish.

As you point out rarely is it seen more clearly than when a mother picks up a broom to go after a Grizzly bear to save her child.. (Yes that has happened and more than once!)
If it did not we most likely would not have made it this far.

It is of and in sacrifice that our hero's are \born. We measure them at least as much by what it cost them as by what they gave us.
 
Good explanation, thanks Daniel. Thinking about it... if heaven shows the man almost infinite mercy.... then it must be myself that loads me with oodles of travails and troubles. Ya know, that makes perfect sense.

I meant that motherhood is a complete sacrifice for a woman. There's the old saying that "a baby changes everything." Especially for the mother.
 
Good of you to say George. Yet if we asked a mother, she would I think, most often say...."What sacrifice?"
It is when we sacrifice all that love claims us and the scale is balanced between to the giver and those who revive.

It is in our giving that we receive the most..
At lest that's one point of view.":O}
 
Oh! and
"The three graces"
"The one who gives, the one who receives and the one who gives back again."
 
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