How Do You Know If You're Wise?

 My grandson told me that anyone at any age can be wise.

I had been under the impression that experience in life coupled with 'time' was what was required to be considered wise.

 Afterall, after fifty or sixty, you've had a chance to get married, earn an education, work at a few jobs, marry, raise children, be afflicted with illness, lose people, have a broken heart, and so on,...

 On review,  I'm apt to agree with Jakey- living a long time, and experiencing life does help you in the quest for wisdom, yet, doesn't necessarily mean that you will gain it.

The inability to take all these experiences you've had, and shape them into a cohesive package of knowledge that can be utilized to make life easier can derail the wisdom self.

When we learn all this knowledge, skill, and lessons, we have to be able to arrange them into a tapestry of working principles.

These principles must be applicable to the human experience, and not just our own individual limited lives.

We must be able to form a well made picture of foundational and truth-bearing pearls that will apply not only to our lives, but the human condition as well.

 For this is where wisdom resides.

 For instance, your car is robbed, the crooks break into your car and steal your stuff .

This could lead one to be distrustful of others... people steal, they rob you, you can't trust people.

The bigger picture and the wiser one, would see this as a different lesson, with overriding umbrella and guiding principles. ..perhaps, the one that broke into your car is a drug addict, the addiction is based on this person's childhood trauma, this brings frustration, sadness at your loss, yet, coupled with compassion for the human condition, and wisdom to not keep anything of value inside the car, parking it in a safer place, etc,... the wise one learns a multitude of lessons.

The not-so-wise one learns that humans are bad, and goes deeper into a state of anger, distrust, and stress.

The wise one learns from their mistake, changes their behavior, understands that one can't change others, accepts the loss, takes action, continues to trust, and stores the info away to be used for future endeavors.

The wise one doesn't allow an individual incident to steal the trust.

The wise one then passes on these lessons to others in various forms.

The key to being wise is to be able to see life from someone  else's perspective and to apply those various perspectives to your own life.

Thanks Jakey,  you're absolutely correct, one can be wise at any age, it's simply a matter of seeing from someone else's perspective, walking in another person's shoes, and understanding that one, lone  perspective is built upon one human's experience.

The tapestry of wisdom we weave is more beautiful and strengthened by the threads of the collective stories.

So, remember, a good test of whether or not you are wise, comes from the ability to step out of your opinion, and into someone else's, seeing the situation from another set of eyes, even if it doesn't merge with your own....

That's wisdom.