Waiting For Wisdom

What if every test of endurance is less about achieving the goal and more about gaining experience and as a result, wisdom?

I’ve been back in the garden recently and what looked dead is now slowly coming back to life. If I only looked for the flowers or the fruit, I would miss so much of the beauty of the whole process. Tiny buds of potential, bright green shoots fighting their way through the heavy, wet earth reveal that although the big picture is still stripped bare, closer to the surface there is a lot going on and there is still more than my eyes don’t see.

I’m beginning to see the same is true for you and me. We spend so much time focused on the ‘fruit’, the goal that we miss the process. I have begun to question; what if there’s no ‘fruit’ – no creative community built through mindfulness and art – no published book. Would it still be worth it? I am beginning to conclude that the answer is ‘Yes!’ It will be worth it because of all the new relationships that are being forged, all the new things I am learning. It will be worth it for the experience.

Gaining experience is the focus of many advertising campaigns, often it seems with the purpose of allowing us to post the gratifying photo on Facebook.  But experience has a more profound purpose than becoming an anecdote on our Twitter feed; experience takes us deeper into the human condition. This is the precursor to wisdom.

Wisdom does not hold a prominent position in our culture. It is not taught in schools, it is not discussed in the mass media, it has been sidelined to the domains of philosophy and religion. The Ancient Greeks were certainly fans of wisdom but more than that it was something they actively sought after. For Aristotle, one of the Greek words for wisdom, sophia, (the act of reasoning, discovering and questioning) was limited if it did not lead to phronesis (practical wisdom – the ability to weigh up situations and act benevolently).

What a difference it would make if we paused to think about the events, choices and circumstances of our lives and considered what they might be teaching us, how we might do things better in the future and how our future choices could benefit others.

No doubt all of the world’s a stage, but you and I are involved in the task of improvisation rather than learning our lines. Each scene, each experience can take us forwards towards wisdom and compassion if we make the choice not to rush the finale but to see each scene as an opportunity to connect with the other players, with ourselves, with the set-designer.

Whilst thinking about endurance and achieving goals. I came across this definition for endurance ‘the capacity of something to last or to withstand wear and tear’. It’s referring to objects, but I really love it as a definition for myself and the things I am creating in my life. In a world where everything is disposable, including it seems relationships, and people, I want to create things that will last. Trouble and difficulty are inevitable, sometimes it seems like the solutions to these problems are to give up or to get a new one. Enduring the tough times, dealing with the confrontations, making the difficult decisions creates something more beautiful and valuable than simple moving on to something or someone new.

How can we gain more wisdom?

How can we help each other develop practical wisdom from our experience?

Who do you look to for wisdom?

The Benefit of the Doubt

 

Doubt generally conjures up negative connotations. We link it with mistrust and feel offended if the doubt is directed at us. In the arena of faith, doubt is often seen as its direct opposite, yet many who express deep faith profess to have doubts and find comfort and even impetus through them.

‘Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.’ (Paul Tillich)

‘If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.’ (Rene Descartes)

Descartes, who is probably more famous for his ‘I think, therefore I am’ quotation than the one cited above was the Father of Cartesian philosophy – the idea that all existence should be questioned in order to be understood. Whilst we could get caught up in a mind bending exercise to argue that this is not some dream existence (although perhaps after Trump’s inauguration yesterday, some people wish it was), I am happy for now (especially as I write) to assume both your existence and my own.

Asserting doubts is the beginning of self-autonomy. As toddlers our common refrain would have been ‘why?’ I remember the common response being ‘because I said so!’ This response is the reassertion of dominance. For some level the toddler is questioning the knowledge and authority of the parent. Whilst dealing with this can be frustrating it is a necessary path to curiosity and independent thought.

In a world of post-truth perhaps doubt and questioning are our greatest allies. The educational system in this country is being blamed for not nurturing critical thinkers and independent learners but surely this is something we could all do with developing further. Tweets and posts have become ‘gospel truth’ that we either choose to believe or ignore. Perhaps we need to give less credit and time to gossip columnists and social commentators and instead give more attention to those who are prepared to question the status quo.

During this last week I went to see Martin Scorsese’s ‘Silence’. I was really impressed by Andrew Garfield’s portrayal of a Jesuit priest. I then discovered that in preparation for the film he completed the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises. In a recent interview he was asked about faith and whether he had doubts about God and the after-life.

‘…And I think a life of faith is not a life of certainty. A life of faith is a life of – of doubt. And I think it is so healthy to doubt. It’s so health to doubt oneself, it’s so healthy to doubt any assumption we make about how to live. And I think – what I say when – what I mean when I say certainty scares me, certainty starts war. Certainty starts war on behalf of ideology. Certainty of the ‘I – I know and you don't.’ That's the scariest thing to me and what – what a human being is capable of doing.’

Andrew Garfield Interview

This is the kind of doubt I think we could all do with considering. Doubt that questions my assumptions. Doubt that allows for your view as much as mine. 

What do you think? 

What are the benefits of doubts? 

Would critical thinking benefit teenagers, our society?