Osler's Razor

There was a long time that I thought that wisdom came from knowing a lot of things. Then I got to know some people with actual wisdom-- or maybe I came to recognize the wisdom in the people who had always been around me.

Knowing a lot of things is expertise, and that is important. We need expertise at the center of significant societal functions, like international relations and heart surgery.  I hope that I have expertise in those few areas I focus on (though I fall short on that sometimes).

That said, I have stopped confusing expertise with wisdom. Expertise has to do with the accumulation of facts, while wisdom has to do with how you see the world and those around you. I have found wisdom in people with little education, and I have found people with lots of education with little wisdom. One thing I have seen in common among those who seem to have wisdom is that they recognize what they do not know, and they listen more than they talk.

I know about the disputed provenance of John 8, where Jesus comes on the stoning of the adulteress and stops it (some scholars believe it was added to the gospel some 400 years after the time of Christ). Still, there is so much in that story, all of which vibrates with the same consistency as the rest of the gospels. Jesus is quiet much of the time, watching and listening. He draws something in the dirt, twice, and we don't even know what he writes. And, yes, he acts-- wisdom does lead to action. Timidity does not sit well with wisdom. And humility is no bar to making things right.

I'm not there; I'm not one of those I have come to admire. But I am learning to see better, to learn from those I admire, and to listen more.