Where does wisdom come from, is it from time or experience, and does it have anything to do with logical understanding. After all “Logic” is a Greek word that comes from the word “Logos” or the hidden wisdom (thank you Mary Everest Boole). I believe that logic comes from neither, I believe that wisdom comes from the thought and emotion that we put into the experiences we have, the more time we spend examining the things we have been through and how it contributes to our humanity, the wiser we become. Consider for a second, a five-year-old controls his temper most of the time, and yet freaks out when one does not wash their hands. Has anyone ever stopped to ask why, could it be from the three years he spent in the hospital watching his older sister suffer and die from an excruciating cancer, and one thing he knows from reflection on this is that cleanliness can prevent illness. Though he is misguided he shows the wisdom of someone years older than him, and this is communicated through his actions and his word. There are others whom are born this way, they always stop and think things through, they are slow, but deliberate, naming and sorting every detail. There is the contrast too, the person who barely passed through out their life, they were always protected by their parents; they never had an experience that they were forced to consider themselves as a person. They go to college, earn a high degree, on someone else’s money, flaunting themselves as a patron of knowledge and wisdom because they were given it. These are the people who truly lack any wisdom, they lack the experience that makes us people and that makes us individuals. I find it infuriating, those who speak with true understanding are usually ignored, and those whom feel that they have more experience due to the collection of papers and personal opinions of character that follow them, not experience. I give this as an example:



Soap, the simplicity of soap, one kind over another is not a big deal, is it?
A distracted employee puts dish soap in a hand pump, the dish soap clearly reads that it is perfectly safe to use on the skin, in fact the add on the front of the bottle mentions added hand moisturizer to keep hands from cracking when used often. The employee decides that this is acceptable and safe, and so continues to fill the dispenser with the dish soap. Later he’s called into the office of his manager, a middle-aged woman; she has at least twenty years on her employee. She proceeds to yell at him about the soap, to barrow the colloquialism, “Chewed him out.” All the time the employee sits there explaining his thoughts, apologizing for displeasing his boss, and yet she does not have the sense to stop herself and think through the incident, to ask her why this is so important. Toward the end of the conversation the employee asks this of her, wanting only to learn, so as not to make a similar mistake later, she blabbers a repetition of her earlier ranting, including no logic or deductive reasoning what so ever, justifying herself with, “Because I said so.”

This isn’t a rare situation, this happens when a teaches lecture and answers are challenged by an interested student, and then the teacher goes on to berate the curious student about how disrespectful it is to contradict her, rather than doing their job, guide the students to a greater knowledge of the world and it’s workings. I just wonder when age trumped true and realistic, logical thought, overriding it with opinions and emotions that they themselves have not taken the time to review their own self as a person. If we have control over out thoughts and emotions, then we can step back and be truly open to what others have to teach us, despite our egos.