They call the internet the Information Super Highway, which is a great thing, but I remember hearing this quote....
"Wisdom is lost in knowledge, and knowledge is lost in information."
Wisdom does not come by chance. I want to look at that quote backwards for a moment. Thanks to the internet and media, there is so much information to come by without even trying. However, information can often be deceiving and wrong. Since I deal with media just about everyday with my job as a film and media critic, I come across information that is usually wrong, and I need to take everything with a grain of salt before I open up and talk about it because I have to sift through the rumors or even accidental facts that are false and not what really reflects the information.
Once information is sifted and we learn the truth from the information we are given, applying that information is what gives us knowledge. Knowledge is a great thing to have. It puts us into a position where we can put that knowledge to work for us. Knowledge can take us far in life, but a lot of the time, the knowledge may not be something that is worthwhile, and can waste our time here on this earth. You might know a ton of trivia, or have memorized text books of things humans study in school, or know about things that may be popular, or unpopular that, in the great scheme of things, is a waste. I'm not saying that education is bad and often wrong. It can be, but I look at it like this. I took an awesome film class in college, and it really helped me discover how much I love film, and art in general. I love that it can inspire and lift us up, and in turn helps us be more creative in ways we can help and inspire others.
However, I also took a Bowling class because I needed a P.E. credit, and thought it would be the easiest. One of my best friends and I took the class together. We carpooled to a bowling alley about twenty-five minutes from our houses, and for the class, all we had to do was write down our scores from thirty games of bowling, add up the total scores from those thirty games, and then divide that number by thirty for the thirty games we played, and that would give us our score average. We got pretty good at bowling at the time, but honestly, bowling is fun, but it's something that isn't really that important to my life at all. I go sometimes, and take Elliot or go with my sisters and their kids, and we have fun, but if something happened and bowling was made illegal or I was told that I could never go bowling again, it would be unfortunate, but it would pretty easy for me to give up, if I'm being honest. I know that there are people that are pro athletes, and the knowledge and skills they learn help them earn money they need for them and their families to live, usually quite nicely, and people love and are inspired by sports, I know I am with certain sports, but in the long run, for me, learning my bowling average was only worth it for the easy A I got on my report card.
So, once we have learned something and have knowledge, sifting through the knowledge and finding the things to us that really, and I mean really, matter, the collection of that knowledge put into action is what gives us Wisdom. Wisdom is the effect that takes something truly important and puts that knowledge to good use.
When I hear the word wisdom, I think of older people. I think that because I know they have lived longer than me, or experienced more than me at something, and their wrong and right choices can inspire us to learn the knowledge that they are sharing about something important that really matters in this life. I've never touched a flame in a candle because my parents and grandparents told me it would hurt me really bad. I learned later that my grandma had touched a candle and it hurt her really bad. She lived and gained that knowledge first hand, no pun intended, and told me that if I touched that pretty little warm flame that it would hurt me, and so I never did. She put her knowledge to work, and in turn, became wisdom.
Everyone in this world makes mistakes and will sometimes to dumb things, or say dumb things, I know I could fill a journal with some of the stupid things I have done or said that I regret. The only thing I can do is take that knowledge that I did or said something dumb or wrong, and that application allows me to share that information with anyone who will listen, and so I have wisdom from things I messed up at and regret. That's what's pretty cool about wisdom. It can take us from being an idiot or a jerk, and allow us to have knowledge of what you do or say is wrong, and gives us a chance to correct what was wrong, and try and become a better person, and share that knowledge with anyone.
There are things that I have taught Elliot that came from me making mistakes when I was a kid, and give him that information so that he can learn and make him know that stuff, and then him passing that knowledge to others will in turn make him wise......at least I hope. He's a super great kid and really, really smart and understands things at ten years of age, that me of 40 years don't understand. So in a way, Elliot telling me something, and teaching me things is him taking his knowledge, and giving it to me, and humbling me, and make Elliot wise in some ways.
Notice, I said "humbling me". If we are to learn anything, we have to accept that we as humans don't know very much, even people who think they know it all actually don't. There are things in this world, or even maybe a world beyond that we don't understand, comprehend and most likely never will in this life. We have to accept that there is always something more to learn, but we need to remember that learning and gaining information isn't the same as being smart or wise. We must sift the information to get the truth and knowledge, and then we must exercise that knowledge by sharing it and living it, and that will in turn make us more wise in the process. We need to be humble and keep our minds open, but remember the words and experiences we have learned in our lives either from mistakes, or taking advice from someone more knowledgeable than us, I mean, hey, there is always someone smarter than yourself, so being humble and open minded is needed to understand the wisdom passed down and taught to us, and allow us a chance to pass on wisdom of our own.
I don't claim to be a wise person, but I know that you can't be wise without trial, error and being taught something that we put to the test and find the truth about whatever it is we might be experiencing, or at least recognizing things. Like, I know that meth is bad, and will most likely kill you. I don't know anyone on meth, but I know that people die from it, there are people that are homeless because they use any money they receive to buy more meth. I don't need to take it to know it's a horrible thing. I learned about drugs when I was little, and I have lived a drug free life, and I have seen what drugs can do to a person, so me being drug free is knowledge that I put to use, and makes me wise in that regard.
I hope that this little blog that I have been trying to keep up has helped you learn something every now and again. I hope that you are all safe. I am excited that a vaccine is out for people to try and to see if we can beat the whole Covid-19 pandemic, or at least make it something that isn't life threatening, but I also know that it is still rampant, and we still need to be very careful and act so we don't get sick or pass it on. I have never experienced it, but I know it's wise to follow rules, laws and other people and their experiences with it...see what I did there, I wrote a callback.
Anywho, I will be back again soon with another blog post. There is something I really want to talk about, but it will be a longer, but really amazing, blog post to read. It has officially been one year since the pandemic was put into place, and I have been trying to do things that keep my mind sharp, and also love sharing with all of you. Take care for now.
Uncky Nate is off to bed!
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