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If we want to be wise, then we must view the journey toward wisdom as a time-involved process. We must make the effort to trek to the waters of understanding and, once at the riverside, spend significant time on its banks, occasionally even wading out into the deeper pools.
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Wisdom Requires a Journey of Time
The metaphorical trek to the water is synonymous with Plato’s moment of turning around. It is a conscious moment of decision that comes only after we have noticed that something has happened, i.e. that there is a logic outside us and beyond us which we wish to pursue. In chapter 13 of his Didascalicon, Hugh of St. Victor admonishes us: “Do not hurry too much, therefore; in this way you will come more quickly to wisdom.” There is here the explicit prolonged duration which is necessary in attaining understanding.
“Do not hurry too much, therefore; in this way you will come more quickly to wisdom.”
If you are willing to learn from all, this will surely take time. Many learned writers throughout the ages make clear that wisdom comes from many streams. And the point of its pursuit is not only a culmination of the pursuit, but the intended point of the journey.
This journey rightly begins after we have this moment of turning around. We turn around because we are unsettled; we sense that we are made to know something, but we don’t yet actually know. What follows is significant time spent in the presence of the learning that has come before us.
The “What Is”
And what is this wisdom?
John of Salisbury, the medieval scholar, teaches us that anything which “advances the cause of charity” can be justly called wisdom. If charity, a self-giving love, is the genesis of understanding, then it also has distinctive markers. Knowledge which prefers truth to fame and recognizes the dangers of pride is wise.
Even in my most studied, critiqued, and solid convictions I still must recognize that in the final analysis I could be wrong, and another might be right. This is the same posture of humility which keeps the power of our wills in check so that we are always eager to listen to wisdom, no matter its source. “Fear of the LORD” contains this notion of humility before something greater than ourselves.
Wisdom is not completely under our control, because often it arises from unexpected places. James V. Schall (Jesuit priest, teacher, writer, and philosopher) notes the “world does not only exist, but it exists to be known, and on being known, it further exists to be told about.” This means any sageness we grasp must be put to use in our world, then reflected upon. The spirit, or geist, of understanding is circular and gains meaning with each stage of the process. This is why wisdom is not only contemplation nor only activity, but always contemplative activity.
Wisdom is not only contemplation nor only activity, but always contemplative activity.
Ultimately, wisdom is gift. Yes, there is significant effort and time investments required on our part, but understanding is something outside us which is to be pursued. We have not made wisdom. Rather, wisdom has been made available to us.