Many years ago a young man found Socrates walking along the seashore. As the waves crashed and the wind gently blew; the young man asked Socrates to teach him wisdom. Socrates put his large hand on his shoulder and lead him chest deep into the water.
The young man’s expression became anxious. Socrates placed his strong hands on his shoulders pushing him firmly under the water. After 20 seconds he allowed the man to resurface. “What did you say you wanted?” Socrates asked, “Wisdom, O great Socrates.”
Socrates once again pushed the man back under the water — 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 35 seconds, Socrates let him up. “What did you say you want?” Gasping for air the young man managed a gargled “Wisdom, O wise Socrates.”
For a third time Socrates pushed the innocent man back under; holding him down slightly longer, 40 seconds, 45 seconds, then letting him up. “What do you want?” “Air!” The young man screamed. Socrates released the young man and backed away slowly — speaking!!!
“When you want wisdom as desperately as you wanted air then you will begin to find wisdom…”
Wisdom defined: the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement; the quality of being wise.
A wise man learns by the experience of others.
An ordinary man learns by his own experience.
A fool learns by nobody’s experience. (Source Unknown)
In researching the word wisdom; experience and good judgement are the words occurring most frequently. Experience defined: something that you do or that happens to you, especially something important that affects you.
What happens to you, how it makes you feel, its lasting impression, the emotions experienced cannot be written down and passed on as experience. You must feel, navigate, hear, see and touch your way toward wisdom.
When we are open to new experiences we obviously grow in wisdom. When we are closed to trying new things we cannot grow. Life cannot be lived for you: it must be lived by you. Just like the story above we must feel not only the pain of life but the loss of life.
The paradox lies in discovery: only after a loss; only after it is gone, the one thing we forget we needed the most… is not valued until it is no longer available. We must suffer first to gain a life worthy of our attention… that’s the paradox.
That is the journey, that is the path. This is why so many struggle to want to live, to pull ourselves above apathy. To wake up; to our choices; not societies but ours. The ones we have enough courage to articulate and see through and finally choose.
