03
10
Missing correlation
Written by Nathan on March 10, 2009 at 10:56 pm from A Month of Wisdom.
Written by Nathan on March 10, 2009 at 10:56 pm from A Month of Wisdom.
I wish there was a stronger correlation between the pursuit of wisdom and quality of sleep.
03
08
Watching my steps
Written by Nathan on March 8, 2009 at 5:07 pm from A Month of Wisdom.
Written by Nathan on March 8, 2009 at 5:07 pm from A Month of Wisdom.
Perhaps I’m behind on reflection, but Proverbs 4 ended with an interesting proverb:
Watch your step,
and the road will stretch out smooth before you.
I’ve done a great deal of driving over the past days, and I think I’ve found Solomon’s principle proven in my time on the road. When I was driving home from church today, there were a pair of bikers heading the same direction as me. The entirety of my 20 minutes drive they alternated between rapid acceleration and hard braking to avoid the traffic that was always hiding plainly in front of them. In contrast, I kept an even speed but paid great attention to the traffic pattern and managed to avoid braking most of the drive by intelligently merging when one lane was slowing down. At the end of the drive, I was a few car lengths ahead of both cars. My drive was smooth and worry free. By comparison, both bikers revealed time and time again their frustration at the traffic that they alone were experiencing.
It’s unlikely Solomon has traffic in mind when he wrote that, but even in this (probably weak) example I can’t help but find the value to wisdom even in the more trivial parts of life.
03
07
Sometimes by force
Written by Nathan on March 7, 2009 at 12:24 am from A Month of Wisdom.
Written by Nathan on March 7, 2009 at 12:24 am from A Month of Wisdom.
Sometimes wisdom is active, but there are sometimes it’s passive. Last night I enjoying a passively wise decision, when my body decided to shut down around 8p. I don’t remember much around the time falling asleep, but I did briefly wake up hours later, realize what had happened and elect not to get up. I vaguely recall thinking it would be smart to acquiesce to my body’s demand to sleep.
03
04
What’s a father’s wisdom look like?
Written by Nathan on March 4, 2009 at 11:41 pm from A Month of Wisdom.
Written by Nathan on March 4, 2009 at 11:41 pm from A Month of Wisdom.
While there are numerous reasons for me to spend a month wising up, among the stated reasons is the recent birth of my third child. A lifetime of pop culture exposure has left me thinking that very soon I should start bestowing some sage advice upon my children and preparing them for the ways of the world. Only thing, is that I don’t really know precisely how to do that, never having been a father prior to my eldest’s birth.
So you can imagine my ears perk up when Proverbs starts talking about wisdom imparted from a father. Of course, in this verse the advice is chiefly about the need to prize wisdom, so it doesn’t quite satisfy my specific need. Or maybe it does. Because I’m without either the knowledge of the specifics of what to say, or even generally way the topics I should be saying things about.
Now I’m wondering if I need to look back at the sorts of advice my own dad gave me, and take some cues there. It’s late, my brain’s been exhausted by the day’s demands and so nothing’s leaping to mind. But it’ll come. In the meantime, I’ll just keep wondering what fatherly wisdom looks like. Tips are, of course, welcome.
03
03
For the love of napping
Written by Nathan on March 3, 2009 at 11:41 pm from A Month of Wisdom.
Written by Nathan on March 3, 2009 at 11:41 pm from A Month of Wisdom.
You’ll take afternoon naps without a worry,
you’ll enjoy a good night’s sleep.
As a frequent and even dedicated napper, I’m glad to know a good nap is something Solomon attributed to wisdom. Based on that metric alone, I’m the wisest man alive.
03
03
What wisdom isn’t
Written by Nathan on March 3, 2009 at 12:00 am from A Month of Wisdom.
Written by Nathan on March 3, 2009 at 12:00 am from A Month of Wisdom.
Perhaps with only two chapters committed to writing it’s early for broad declarations, but there are a few notable omissions or distinctions I’ve picked up on. Wisdom appears not to deal with business acumen or the possession of some sort of know-how. In fact, Wisdom seems to be set apart form knowledge and sense explicitly, as if there’s apart though obviously related.
Of course, Solomon started chapter one saying this was a manual for living rather than a guide to getting rich or finding love or even finding happiness. So perhaps he’s just reinforcing this book as a wisdom for life. But perhaps life is the exclusive territory of wisdom and when we try to parcel it to some meager portion of life we’re doomed to failure.
I suppose I’ll find out in either case over the next month.
03
01
Smart start
Written by Nathan on March 1, 2009 at 11:58 pm from A Month of Wisdom.
Written by Nathan on March 1, 2009 at 11:58 pm from A Month of Wisdom.
It was thousands of years ago that Solomon earned the title of “world’s wisest man” and despite the time passed, it’s obvious that wisdom ages well. One chapter in, and I’m struck already how he seems to tap into the sort of thinking that should have staved off wars, financial crises, greed and despair. I suspect that my brain will quickly gain too much weight for my neck to support, and I’ll be forced to buy some awkward big brain neck-support brace. In the meantime, I’ll soldier on.
Here’s what I wrote today (click on either to enlarge):
I’m taking passages I find especially relevant or key and writing them larger – today I pulled out:
Start with God—the first step in learning is bowing down to God;
only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.
…and:
When you grab all you can get, that’s what happens:
the more you get, the less you are.
I also meant to call out:
A manual for living,
for learning what’s right and just and fair;
…but I wasn’t paying enough attention and wrote before realizing how remarkable a line that it. To distinguish a manual by what’s right, just and fair rather than by what will bring a man success. What a grand distinction.
03
01
A Month of Wisdom
Written by Nathan on March 1, 2009 at 10:51 pm from A Month of Wisdom.
Written by Nathan on March 1, 2009 at 10:51 pm from A Month of Wisdom.
This month, every day, I’m going to handwrite a chapter from the book of Proverbs. I’m writing in a Moleskine, using the Message translation of the Bible. Each chapter will take only a few minutes to transcribe from type to script. But in reading a book reported to be written by the wisest man who ever lived, I’m hoping to find more than simply the sum of his words.
Why wisdom? Certainly there are other pursuits, many more noble than wisdom. But with a third child in my home, living in a country with economic instability, perhaps a bit of wisdom would be a prudent pursuit. And where better to look for that wisdom than in the Holy Bible? As John Russell once said,
A proverb is one man’s wit and all men’s wisdom.
It’s likely he didn’t mean that quite as I’m taking it, but for all the sources of wisdom man has turned to, few have endured so much or so well as the Bible. Join me this month and add your paper and ink to Solomon‘s word and see if we can all find a little wisdom.