Posted on 05/28/2003 6:56:58 AM PDT by Theodore R.
Time Is Short
I've always been struck by the fact that knowledge seems to be specific to people, places and times, whereas wisdom spans both millennia and different cultures.
Often, sloppy use of language obscures that fact. I used to hear "If we can put a man on the moon, then why can't we solve traffic jams, etc." Actually, take your pick of the problems people felt should be easy to solve. Well, the truth is that "we" can't put a man on the moon. Out of all the millions of people in the United States, a specific few have that knowledge — and they are not in charge of local traffic engineering. Alas, I don't know how to put a man on the moon or solve the local traffic problems.
Prior to these engineers developing that knowledge, nobody on Earth knew how to do it, though some could imagine it being done, and others imagined that it was impossible.
So, while knowledge is often quite specific, wisdom is universal. If you read enough, you find the same common-sense rules for living in all the great religions and in all the different cultures. In America, an entire cottage industry has been created giving advice that can be found for free in the Book of Proverbs in a Gideon Bible.
One finds versions of "God willing" in practically every language and culture. Why? Because smart people through the centuries and in every culture have observed that as human beings we are not in complete control of our destiny. That's why promises about the future should be conditional. Often events over which we have no control intervene between our stated intentions and their accomplishment.
I learned that on the police beat and as a reserve deputy sheriff. I seriously doubt if any of the 400 dead people whose bodies I saw had started their day knowing it would be their last. A few suicides are the exceptions. For most people, the end of their life is not marked in the Day-Timer.
An old samurai advised younger Japanese warriors to always start their day by imagining their own death. Sounds morbid, but it's probably a good idea to get that inevitability out of the way psychologically so we can concentrate on living until the moment comes. As the great philosopher in "Lonesome Dove," Gus McCrae, says to his friend Woodrow Call: "Hell, Woodrow. It don't matter how you die. What matters is how you live."
Wisdom is common because no matter who we are, what year we are born, what country or culture, every human being has the same existential problem. We have a short time between birth and death to do something with our lives. It doesn't matter whether we're an American businessman, a Chinese construction worker, an Arab shopkeeper or an African herdsman. Same problem. Here are a few decades. Better get started on life. The clock's ticking, and you can't wind it up again. When it stops, you stop, no matter what's left on your List of Things to Do. Wisdom is just the rules for getting the most out of life, rules that, through the centuries, the smart observers have preserved in writing.
Life for us exists only in the present moment. If we waste the present moment by remembering the past or dreaming about the future, then we are wasting life itself. The past can't be undone or repeated verbatim, and the future never arrives, because every morning we wake up right back in the present.
The big trouble for many of us is expressed in an old German saying, "Too soon old, too late smart." I've certainly done some dumb things in my life, but I'm not going to make a list of them and share it with you. You can make your own list.
In the meantime, we should just follow the Naikan philosophy (based on a form of Japanese therapy) and let reality tell us what needs to be done next. In the final analysis, a good life is constructed of actions, not intentions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2003 by King Features
A main dividing line between conservatives and liberals.
Confucious say : "If unable to erect " Temple of Pleasure " anymore - It is time to make philosophical statements about no further need for pleasure . "
( Sound of gong ) WANG !!
Janet REno didn't feel any pain at Waco, but she did it "For the children".
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