Wisdom for a 10-year old!
Hello all! After a lot of deliberation and procrastination, here is my maiden piece for Medium. The subject begins with a 10-year old’s question: What is wisdom? There are countless philosophical ways to describe this concept, but how does one do that for a curious child?
Let me try.
Once a farmer’s donkey fell into a well. As he tried to rescue the poor distressed animal, it kept braying woefully for hours. The animal cried distressingly for hours as the farmer tried to rescue it. No success came by. Finally, with a heavy heart, the farmer decided to let go off the old donkey. He shovelled dirt into the well in a bid to cover it off.
At first, when the donkey understood what was happening, it panicked and cried horribly. Then, it went absolutely quiet and suddenly let out some happy brays. To the farmer’s amazement, the donkey shook off the dirt shovelled on its back and took a step up. Seeing this, the farmer too, continued his efforts. Soon the dirt came close to the edge of the well and the now happy donkey stepped up over and scampered off.
This story tells us about the wisdom that the donkey discovered in climbing onto the mounds of dirt. It also tells us about the wisdom of the farmer in continuing his efforts of shovelling dirt into the well, as it meant rescuing his donkey.
The moral hereby, is that if you are wise, it is possible to turn every adversity in your life into a stepping-stone.
So, what truly is wisdom? It is what you make of it. What is wise for me, perhaps maybe foolish or dumb for you. And vice versa.
Wisdom is one of the most highly valued assets of human nature. You can bring all the good, virtuous characteristics to life because of wisdom. And here’s the best and the most complicated part — no amount of books can define it, no schools and colleges have the right curriculum to teach it. No amounts of experience are enough to demonstrate it and one cannot transfer wisdom just by talking about it. But wisdom is a sum of all of this and everything else in our lives that shape us into who we are and what we become.
A wise person once said that intelligence is knowing that tomatoes are a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put them in a fruit salad.
I think Dr Seuss (pronounced like ‘Zoyce’ and not ‘Zeus’) has put it well. “The more that you read, the more things you’ll know. The more that you learn, the more places, you’ll go.” And if that ain’t wisdom, well then what is?
“Think and wonder, wonder and think.”
