Wisdom is probably the most valuable thing in the world. It is not like a mineral which you have to dig out of the earth. You can not save it in a bank, nor can you build a factory to manufacture it. There are, however various ingredients which you have to collect and which then have to be mixed and blended together for the final product; which is wisdom.
A warning, however is on the label. Wisdom is not something which improves with keeping. It has to be used, either in doing something which may be called a wise action or in giving it away as advice or wise counsel. Just as the apothecary had to get the ingredients for his medicines fresh, especially the herbs, so the wise man will be constantly gathering and constantly using the raw materials of his wisdom in discussion, in argument, in warnings, in teaching and in counsel.
It will also help if he has a sense of humour, Socrates had one and he was a wise man. The Lord Jesus had one and He was and is supremely wise. The essence of a healthy sense of humour is to be able to laugh at oneself. All of us are guilty of pomposity and that is the besetting sin of him who aspires to wisdom. Most of us feel humiliated by being made fun of and both the above mentioned had plenty of folk to ridicule them. The Lord Jesus constantly had His humble origins thrown in His face and Socrates was unmercifully parodied in The Clouds, a comic play by Aristophanes who had Socrates up in a sort of balloon investigating how gnats fart.
It is the most valuable thing and I am sure that all people of good will agree with this. However that sort of thing can become a circular argument. It is much harder when people value money, power, fun, fame, and such to prove that wisdom is best. This is especially so since wise people, as the two supreme examples I have mentioned above, were poor, they had plenty of enemies, and they ended their lives with the shame of a trial and execution. How can we justify valuing wisdom as the best thing of all?
The billionaire who has sailed rather close to the moral breeze in order to amass wealth will be admired by the many. Even if there is a tinge of jealousy in that admiration, it is envy at the state of being "filthy rich". Paul Simon sings of all the things Richard Cory, who owns the factory has and does. Richard Cory then goes home and “puts a bullet through his head”. The refrain still goes on, “I wish I was Richard Cory”. So it is with all these things. We see our failure in climbing the corporate pyramid or as an entrepreneur to be due to bad luck or being cheated by others. In fact most of us are not unscrupulously ruthless enough to climb these murky heights and if we were we would not find happiness. Pleasure maybe but not happiness.
The working man with his warm little house, well, warm as long as he is working, and his nice little family may indeed be happier but that he is wiser is a matter for question. He still envies the Richard Cories of this world. Do not we all?
What wisdom does is to judge things as they really are. It gives good counsel and always commends the right and the good. It is based on knowledge but it is discerning and can select the knowledge relevant to the case before it. It will then eschew personal advantage simply because that is the right thing for it to do. It can often see through to the real and often dubious motives of others yet it does not judge and it does not criticize. It will, if necessary keep silence when it knows where and when a person is too weak to accept good advice. It knows when to speak and when to keep silence. It can discern the appropriate action of course to take according to circumstances without giving way to temporary expediency because it will value the long term over the short.
Is it better to strive to know these things or "go with the flow," not "rocking the boat"? How will the wise person feel who sees the disaster coming as it looms over the horizon? How does he feel when he sees it approaching but his friends mocking at his warnings calling him a "prophet of doom, a Jeremiah? How does he feel when he experiences the laughter and foolish mockery of the ignorant knowing that they are immature and without discernment? How does he feel when he knows it is better to love those same mockers than to hate them or despise them, for they too are human and his brothers and sisters?
Is it better to puzzle oneself over a problem as what it is to be good, or whether values are there in the nature of things or merely what we think about matters, or is it better to go along with the crowd and enjoy oneself? And if one did would the enjoyment really be enjoyed? It seems that for most of his time the wise man is doomed to disappointment, to hurt and to failure.
There is a parable in Ecclesiastes that tells of a poor wise man and a great king. The king sets up his battering rams and his siege engines outside the town where the poor wise man lives and the citizens come to him for advice. He shows them what to do to drive off the overwhelming military threat and the would be conqueror goes away frustrated. The citizens then go back to their daily lives and to their small enjoyments leaving the poor wise man to his rejection and his poverty and to his wisdom.
Here is the crux. Wisdom is a hard taskmaster, it will allow no sloppy thinking, no easy solutions and no compromise with popular thinking. It does, however give some deep satisfactions. Take, for instance, that "eureka' moment as when Pythagoras leapt out of his bath and ran out naked because he was elated over seeing the solution to the problem that the king had set him.
May you have many eureka moments. May you search and strive for wisdom and not for wealth, pleasures, power, status or anything else the world counts as worthwhile. Wisdom is for all and not for the few, though those who have been called philosophers have been among the few. May you earn both respect and contempt as one who does not care about the things people usually care about but because you care about knowledge, understanding and wisdom. May you be good, poor and wise.
