Wisdom is Waitin’ on Me: Five Myths of Being Wise
A track from my forthcoming CD “I Don’t Do Lazy Like That”
April Fools’ Day strikes me as an appropriate time to talk about wisdom. There is wisdom in balance—the balance between the thoughtful and frivolous, between the serious and the light-hearted, between solemnity and humour. April Fools’ Day…apparently the morning that WestJet became Canada Air to be our #MostCanadian airline, the morning when Amazon’s Alexa home assistant proclaimed that she would offer support to pets, the morning when our own Taron Cochrane made his annual? (fake) concert announcement—all the folly of 2017’s April 1. Falling and chasing jokes…maybe not as far from falling and chasing that elusive wisdom.
“Wisdom is Waiting on Me” is track from my forthcoming CD. ‘Wisdom’ –perhaps just as much anything—may be commodified in contemporary culture, and in various ways. In my world I have come to see several myths around wisdom:
- We are led to believe that wisdom is a natural by-product of age—as we age, we expect to become wise or at least wiser. In reality, I have encountered wise young people, and foolish older people.
- Wisdom happens without effort; it is a passive, passed down artefact. In reality, life is dynamic, surprising and at times quite challenging. It is how we chose to reflect and react with life that creates wisdom. Wisdom is an active, engaged process.
- In this way, wisdom is not a right of the mature, in reality; wisdom is an earned perspective through active engagement with one’s own life.
- Simply put, wisdom is not a commodity; it is not a formulaic sequence to enlightenment. Wisdom is not the right kind of mudra, not the perfect Siddhasana with perfect posture, not the right trek up to the right mountain top—it is not even not the right kind of yoga attire
- Wisdom “don’t come in lightning bolts or eureka’s at night”
- “Wisdom is Waitin’ on Me” and you too,
Ohm, ohm, ohm.
….Ummm, could you please pass my sweat towel?
Too many downward dogs.