Before you readers think I’ve knocked my head silly to have come up with this topic, let me tell you the story behind it! I didn’t have any such accident! I’m currently attending a 15 day Soft-Skills ‘mandatory’ course of ICAI (An entire post dedicated to this one next week*) and as a part of the ‘Public Speaking’ lecture, I was alloted the topic ‘True Wisdom comes from Experience’.
Inside my head I was thanking my stars for not throwing at me something as complicated and out-of-my-zone as ‘Euthanasia’ or ‘Women in Indian Sports’ or ‘Reality shows in India – talent or hype?’ 😛
As I sat to prepare my speech, I tricked my heart into believing that the topic was something my head had chosen and the words started flowing, like they always do.
And the final draft went through my mom, like all my posts do. 🙂
….
What is wisdom?
Wisdom is an ability that provides us with greater comprehension, a deeper understanding and an ability to be able to judge what is right and what is wrong.
What gives rise to wisdom? We all know we weren’t born with it! Is it age? Or knowledge? Mind you, it isn’t the eruption of your wisdom teeth!
A sociology professor at University of Florida says wisdom, a combination of cognitive, reflective and compassionate qualities, is not the sole purview of the elderly. Isn’t that true? Haven’t all of us at some point in life learnt something that made us a better person from someone much younger than us?
Talking about knowledge, I happened to come across a quote that speaks volumes about the whole concept. To quote Anthony Douglas Williams, “knowledge comes from learning. Wisdom comes from living”. You’d agree with me if I said being well read and well informed alone don’t equal wisdom.
What is it then? Wisdom is nothing but the stored memories of our experiences and a wise person is the one who reflects on the meaning of those experiences and draw lessons from it.
Our quest for wisdom often gets easier when we have people who share their wisdom with us thereby providing inspiration, guidance and teachable moments for us as we may encounter similar experiences along our life journeys. They can be anyone. Your family, your friends, someone you idolize or even a stranger! It all comes down to your attitude, how much you are willing to learn and accept. To accept failure and sorrow as a part of your journey and believe in yourself to get up and get going.
You don’t have to be some guru to become a wise person. And you don’t have to have a long white beard and sit contemplating in a cave for a decade!!
My mom is no guru and she definitely hasn’t lived in a cave. Of course she wishes to go live in one after having to put up with two difficult people all her life, my father and me! For me, she’s an ocean of wisdom. She’s someone who I look up to for solutions to my problems. I always tell her she can become the next Sadguru what with her words of wisdom! While my mom and I have always shared a friendly relation, believe me, I often find her to be indifferent or unsympathetic to my issues. Why? Because I’m looking for an answer or solution in my favor. But that’s not how life works! Tomorrow it may bowl a googly at me and I wouldn’t know how to handle it because I’ve a poor understanding of what are the real issues one could face. A chapati shape gone wrong is not a life-altering problem. It’s not like our elders want us to go through hardships they experienced but they try to prepare us nevertheless because they wish for us to deal with the situation in a better, wiser way, if faced with it.
What I’m trying to tell you is that we all need someone who would guide us but we fail to recognize such people who wish nothing but the best for us and try to knock some sense into us.
In conclusion I’d like to say that yes, irrespective of having that someone, eventually, Wisdom is something that we have to find ourselves and gain as we proceed on the path of life, investing our time in putting together the knowledge we’ve gained along the way at different times. Ultimately, our wisdom becomes our most trusted source of guidance in living.
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And it happened. After nearly a decade, I spoke in front of an audience. I couldn’t have done it without the encouraging words of two friends who pushed me to go and just rock it!
The smile on everyone’s face, the words “We can’t think of any points for improvement” and the following round of applause..
I had nailed it!
Loads of love to all of you! 🙂
C.A.: Confused Aquarian 