From time to time I have the opportunity to have a discussion with a young adult that makes me remember being that age myself. A college environment is a great place for gaining information. There are plenty of books to read, research is encouraged and supported and the minds of young adults are brilliant and able to absorb and remember many different bits of information. I think that young adults are interested in many different subjects as well, which adds to that sense of having a lot of information. I am often amazed at the variety of topics about which a young adult can converse intelligently and the amount of information they carry in their conscious minds. Now that I am older, I sometimes have to dig a bit deeper for information and some of the information that I carry in my brain is obsolete, or at least dated. Frequently I can cite a statistic that is either based on old research or no longer relevant.

Possessing information, however, isn’t the same as knowledge. It takes more than a series of known facts to be able to use information and apply it to the solution of problems. I’ve known a few people in my life who never really develop basic common sense. They might be academically brilliant and possess a lot of information but lack practical skills for real-world problem solving. Sometimes these individuals make very good professors and teachers. And, with the right partnerships they can have very successful lives.

There are, on the other hand, individuals who always seem to be rooted in reality - able to do ordinary tasks with ease while accepting larger challenges. They have organizational skills that enable them to not only sort their information so that it is usable, but also to do tasks in the right order to accomplish real work.

I’ve long tried to be more than a person who possesses information. I often joke that I was at my most brilliant when I was 25 years old. I had earned my undergraduate and graduate degrees. I had read a lot of books. I had a title and a profession. Then, when I arrived in my first parish, people were impressed not with my titles and degrees, but with the fact that I knew how to drive a truck and operate farm machinery. They thought it remarkable that their minister changed his own oil and could make an acceptable tack weld. It was often my practical skills, earned through a lot of part-time jobs along the way, that impressed the people I served more than the books that I had read, the information that I possessed and the academic credentials I sported.

A complete life requires more than information.

Now, at this stage of my life, I often find myself thinking about wisdom. Wisdom is something more than information. It is something more than knowledge. Wisdom is the ability to use knowledge. It is, in part, born of experience. Having collected a lot of experiences, however, does not guarantee wisdom. I know people who have a “been there and done that” attitude about much of life and yet seem to have not learned much from their experiences. They seem likely to repeat mistakes.

Wisdom involves integration of information, knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. It is the integration part that is the most challenging. How do I use what I have learned and the experiences I have had to make a genuine contribution to the world?

I still have much to learn before I might be considered to be wise, but I have a few observations about myself that are interesting - at least to me.

I am slower to share information with others. These days I feel little need to prove that I am smart or that I possess information. I don’t need to spout facts or offer corrections as readily as was the case years ago. These days I am better at listening and a bit slower to speak than was the case. I don’t need to prove my expertise to anyone. As a result I am gaining the ability to discern which information is helpful and useful and which information is irrelevant or unnecessary. I have less need to bombard others with facts, many of which are trivial or not relevant to the situation at hand.

I am less likely to argue. Somewhere along my life’s journey the passion for convincing others of my opinions has become less powerful. I remember a self-righteous sense of being “right” and experiencing others as “wrong” combined with an urge to change their minds. These days I am more able to accept the opinions and ideas of others without having to be convinced by them or needing to convert them to my opinion or ideas. There are, of course, ideas and concepts that are worth defending and there is a place for reasoned argument. When people genuinely listen, debate can be an excellent tool for teaching and expanding the understanding of the community. These days, however, I am quicker to allow someone to have their own ideas and slower to enter into an argument aimed at changing those ideas.

I seem to be more aware of my emotions. It wasn’t too many years ago that I would find myself surprised by the intensity of my emotional reaction to a particular situation. These days, I seem to be more aware when my anger is stirred or when I am overwhelmed with compassion. My emotions don’t surprise me as much as once was the case. As a result, I am better able to engage in a conversation without losing my temper and saying something that I later regret. This is a matter of degree. It isn’t that I don’t misspeak. It isn’t that I don’t have regrets about some things I have said. It is just that this is less common than it was a few years ago.

I observe great wisdom in others and I know that I have a long journey ahead before I might be considered to be truly wise. But I also see some progress. Advancing in wisdom may become even more important as I lose some of my ability to keep relevant information on the top of my mind. As I slow in mental processes, I hope that I can increase in discernment.

Who knows? Maybe I could yet develop the quality of sound judgment. It would have been very useful when I was younger, but I still have need for it.

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