Anything we want to know is virtually just a few clicks away. But more knowledge doesn’t always lead to more wisdom. In fact, with all our knowledge we’ve often simply become smart fools. Wisdom is needed to bring more life and goodness and beauty into the world and to see what’s already present.
There was a time in which school was truly about educating and preparing us to be wise and productive members of society. And, to be fair, educating and passing on wisdom was the responsibility of the whole village.
In time, school became more about memorizing certain facts for the test. And while we gained a lot of information, we lost much of our ability to wisely navigate our life and relationships.
Life is much more complex than merely trying to figure out the bare minimum needed to pass a test.
Knowledge is useful and needed, but not sufficient by itself.
For instance, it’s good to know the facts about our sexual bodies and how babies are made. But this knowledge by itself doesn’t teach us how to manage the power of our sexual energy well. We need wisdom to grow into the fullness of our sexual selves and discover how our sexuality is also part of our practice of love.
And this remains true when it comes to financial management and social policies, marriage, friendships, parenting, and the like.
It’s helpful to learn as much information as we can. But we must not confuse mere information with wisdom.
Wisdom helps us to see from a larger perspective and know how to best apply the information we’ve learned. It’s not restricted to cookie-cutter approaches to life and can handle the many different shades of gray that come our way.
Without wisdom we become short-sided and invite much unnecessary suffering into our lives.
In the end, add to your knowledge wisdom and live life to the full.
Photo by David White on Unsplash
