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Experience Wisdom

Justin Bolger
The Commuter

Thursday, November 5, 2009

“You must learn from the mistakes of others.” This is the bit of reason which decays all true wisdom.

The framework of our world disallows life experience. Because of this, as a society, wisdom is lost to us; at least in a practical, traditional sense.

I hold adamantly to the idea that wisdom must be gained through experience. One can be directly taught to, at best, spew lines of knowledge back out into the world. So, in order to gain true wisdom, a person must have a deeper understanding of where that line comes from. To truly grasp the concept of a lesson a person can only be guided along the journey; not told the ending.

Any writing which adheres to the traditional eastern style of teaching philosophy will show you a way to learn the lessons rather than tell them to you. Zen in the Art of Archery is a good example of this idea. The historically significant conversations of Aristotle and Plato used this same method all the way over in Euro-land. These two practically invented philosophy.

Schools don’t teach like this; except for that rare diamond of a mentor. With that said, we’re meant to be in school from the time we’re five until somewhere in between 18 and maybe 25. Coincidentally, this is also the average age for a woman in the US to have her first child, according to the CDC National Vital Statistics System.

In theory that’s one-third of every day within establishment confines and another one-sixth doing homework. That’s half a day plus sleep time: 20 hours of everyday spent not gaining life experience. Throw in a childhood with tyrannical parents offering lessons consisting only of the word “no”, and you’ll have had no life to speak of.

What you gain are intellectuals; not mentors. I believe the children raised by products of this societal strategy will be much worse off than those who might have taken a couple of years to go out and discover themselves and the world available to them. These are the people with stories of both triumph and disaster, stories of how to live. What does it mean if your greatest triumph is your 4.0 GPA and your life-changing disaster is that time you didn’t study and bombed a test?

I’m not trying to preach against school by any means, though that’s likely how this reads. What I’m trying to say is that people should live outside the safely defined path sometime in their lives. I recommend there be a sort of spirit quest in the flavor of Native American tradition, a journey of testing and reflection. Just make sure to do it before settling into a family or career. Nothing will teach you more than travel beyond tourism.

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