Have you ever met someone that typically seems to know a little about any and every subject you could even think about bringing up? They can be kinda irritating because they emit the 'know-it-all-dare-you-to-question-me' fragrance. But it seems, to me at least, when I'm dealing with that specific type of person, they don't know how to insert the information into a 'normal' conversation. They tend to blurt out information at random intervals and sometimes the information has NOTHING to do with the conversation at hand. Maybe I'm missing something but it almost seems to me that they want you to know how much they know about EVERYTHING! As a child, I marveled at the student who could have such a conversation with adults and teachers. I wanted to be smart like them. I wanted other people to think of me as smart as I thought of the other child. I wanted that knowledge!
Fast forward to current times. I have often thought of and proudly referred to myself as an 'old-soul'. That meant that I didn't think like people that were my age thought. In my 20's, I appreciated spending time with older people because of the experiences that they shared with me. I loved listening to KKDA-AM Soul 73 because of the blues and old-time gospel music that they played. Well, I really didn't have a choice because it was what my dad decided we were listening to. But the songs, whether they were blues or gospel, told stories, had emotion, and caused emotion to flow. Many of the artists hadn't graduated from high school, let alone gone to college. But they seemed wise beyond their years. They spoke in colloquialisms....hardly ever straight forward. You had to have wisdom just to be able to follow a conversation that they were having with the radio personalities during interviews. And just listening to them singing about life through song was an experience all on its own! If I actually 'got' what they were saying, I felt like the wisest lil girl around!
If I had to choose between knowledge and wisdom, I would choose wisdom. To me, living life through the pages of a book alone, with no experience to go with it, isn't really living at all. Wisdom can take you to the right places and keep you from going to the wrong places, if you listen to it and apply it. I guess I think of wisdom as an innate sense and we are blessed with a certain measure of it. If we listen to people, and grow wisdom, we will be able to share and pass it on before we do!
I'm not knocking knowledge...I am a teacher and a life-long learner. But I know that there are some things that you just can't find in a book.
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