All my life I’ve known people who are lots smarter than I am. They are math geniuses, science masters, literature scholars, and every other kind of brilliant person you can imagine. I can’t help but admire this attribute.

So I realized that although I liked to write, the first time I wrote on Ricochet was very intimidating. All these extremely smart people would be reading what I’d written, picking my post apart in their own minds or haranguing me with comments. Instead, people were actually kind and curious, and it was a wonderful beginning for me. I’ve also made embarrassing mistakes in my posts: I’ve erred on some of my posts on Judaism, and people have been so helpful and forgiving. I’ve had incorrect information in an occasional post that I’m more than happy to correct if people tell me. I even recently had a spelling error in a post title! So I’m not the brightest bulb in the pack. But I can claim to have a modicum of something else, an attribute that is so very precious to me: Wisdom.

My own understanding of Wisdom is that I have reached a time in life where I can say I’ve taken much of what I’ve learned and made an effort to integrate it into an understanding of how the world works. Wisdom is an attribute that deepens and expands. It calls on my curiosity; there’s always more to learn. I like my ideas to be challenged when I’m not knowledgeable, and even when I am, I try to open to the possibility that my knowledge is incomplete. I think I read people pretty well: I rarely get into conflicts with people, especially on Ricochet, because I’ve come to believe that harsh disagreement with me is only partly due to what I’ve written.

The benefits of wisdom show up in little gems; these gems may be covered with mud or polished to a radiant luster. We don’t always know when something is wisdom, I think, because what we’ve learned finds its way to our body of wisdom all on its own; or Wisdom snatches it up to join its community. One way or another, this gift is absorbed and assimilated to become part of an enriching, deep and profound foundation.

In this chaotic world, Wisdom has taught me to be flexible, even though I love predictability; it’s taught me to build relationships even though I often prefer my own company; I’ve learned that I can overcome or work through adversity and come out stronger on the other side. I know and mostly accept that I have little control over this world, and can only do my best in each situation.

That is what Wisdom has taught me. Thank you, Wisdom.

Here’s a question for you: When you speak or act, how do you know if you are speaking from wisdom and not desire?