Wednesday, November 13, 2024
OPINION - WISDOM
BY DONOVAN BALDWIN
Although I often rail at trying to encapsulate "wisdom" into a single image, cogent aphorism, or peppy, pompom-shaking combination of the two, I, like everyone else, sometimes like my "wisdom" and "escape" from reality, in bite-size servings.
Another small treasure of mine is the title of a Robert Heinlein story, "The Door Into Summer". The narrator's cat, Pete, regularly seeks to have the same door opened to go outside, yet, if it's cold, or raining, he doesn't want to go out. But, if the door is opened, and the sun is shining, he's happy to go through THAT door.
So, although he goes to the same door time after time throughout the year, he's waiting for the door that opens into summer.
Aren't we a lot like that at times?
We encapsulate our "wisdom" into small bites, and, instead of combining and extending that wisdom, and learning how to make summer wherever we are, we often just keep thinking the same small thoughts, and opening the same doors, hoping our season has finally arrived.
Labels: 7th Standard Road, donovan baldwin, Jason Bourne, opinion piece, Robert Heinlein, wisdom
Monday, November 11, 2024
OPINION - FINDING OUR OWN BEAUTY AND WISDOM
Sometimes we read something, hear something, and think, "How wise that is!" Yet, it's been my experience that often the wisdom is not IN the statement that we heard or read, but, in our acceptance, recognition, or evaluation of it.
Often, we are finding the wisdom in ourselves that, perhaps, we couldn't see, or did not have the words or images for.
When we look at art, no matter how skilled the artist, or lovely, or compelling, the scene or subject, it's our own reaction, our acceptance, recognition, response, that makes it "beautiful", or "perceptive" or "avant garde" in our eyes and mind. The wisdom is often within us. The beauty is within us.
Oh, sometimes we need a little help finding it, seeing it, or maybe are missing a few pieces, but, that's why we read, walk in the woods, hum along to music, speak with others... or sit and watch the world, and wonder about it... finding our own beauty and wisdom.
Labels: art, beauty, donovan baldwin, opinion, wisdom
Wednesday, January 24, 2018
Knowledge Vs. Truth Vs. Wisdom
By: Donovan Baldwin
Not necessarily going to tie those together, just that was the thought that kicked off the following: A day or two ago, in another post on a Social media site, I mentioned a piece of info that most "knowledgeable" people of my day knew (that's 20 - 30 years ago, Bubba).
Well, the person DIDN'T know it and my first twitch was "not in the know".
Then, it hit me.
When it was knowledgeable TO ME, this info WAS INFO, but, this person was either a toddler or an embryo...or, as my father used to say, "a gleam in his mother's eye".
So, how can I hold them intellectually accountable, even for true knowledge, which is not commonly known in THEIR time, and, how can they exercise wisdom with that truth and knowledge, that they simply do not have...and, HAVE NO REASON TO HAVE?
I think that's where we get into trouble in our relationships, with the neighbors and those "idiots" on the other side of the world.
By the way, if you live in China, to you I might be one of those "idiots" on the other side of the world.
So, don't take it personally.
There's an old joke about the word "assume".
"To assume, creates an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me'."
By the way, don't assume I'm talking dirty. That's the animal, not the body part.
See? You might not know what I mean even though I mean what I say.
We're human.
That's fine...I assume.
Well, the person DIDN'T know it and my first twitch was "not in the know".
Then, it hit me.
When it was knowledgeable TO ME, this info WAS INFO, but, this person was either a toddler or an embryo...or, as my father used to say, "a gleam in his mother's eye".
So, how can I hold them intellectually accountable, even for true knowledge, which is not commonly known in THEIR time, and, how can they exercise wisdom with that truth and knowledge, that they simply do not have...and, HAVE NO REASON TO HAVE?
I think that's where we get into trouble in our relationships, with the neighbors and those "idiots" on the other side of the world.
By the way, if you live in China, to you I might be one of those "idiots" on the other side of the world.
So, don't take it personally.
There's an old joke about the word "assume".
"To assume, creates an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me'."
By the way, don't assume I'm talking dirty. That's the animal, not the body part.
See? You might not know what I mean even though I mean what I say.
We're human.
That's fine...I assume.
Labels: donovan baldwin, knowledge, truth, wisdom
Tuesday, January 09, 2018
Wisdom Is Like...
By: Donovan Baldwin
"Wisdom is like a baobab tree; no one individual can embrace it."
~ Akan proverb.
I see much on many social media sites, and the internet in general, not to pick on any one platform or group of people, about how to be wise, be great, be happy, be... well, you pick the virtue or reward.
The problem as I see it, or, at least ONE problem, is that wisdom, kindness, greatness, happiness, comes to us, unique creatures that we are, as huge masses too large to be completely understood, defined, or embraced, by one person, or, encapsulated in just a few words and images.
Still, just because we cannot have ALL should NOT mean we give up and simply don't try to have ANY.
I try, and sometimes (often) fail to be as wise, as good, as kind, as happy, as I desire to be. But, each day, I give it my best shot.
No matter how much I personally reap, I also try to share whatever happiness, kindness, goodness I can spare.
After all, I might not always have a lot myself, but, at least I can remind people that good things are out there, and they can claim their share.
Funny point about good things such as wisdom, kindness, and other such things...taking some for yourself, even hoarding them, never seems to diminish what is still available to share with everybody else.
In fact, finding some for yourself seems to create more for others.
"Wisdom is like a baobab tree; no one individual can embrace it."
~ Akan proverb.
The problem as I see it, or, at least ONE problem, is that wisdom, kindness, greatness, happiness, comes to us, unique creatures that we are, as huge masses too large to be completely understood, defined, or embraced, by one person, or, encapsulated in just a few words and images.
Still, just because we cannot have ALL should NOT mean we give up and simply don't try to have ANY.
I try, and sometimes (often) fail to be as wise, as good, as kind, as happy, as I desire to be. But, each day, I give it my best shot.
No matter how much I personally reap, I also try to share whatever happiness, kindness, goodness I can spare.
After all, I might not always have a lot myself, but, at least I can remind people that good things are out there, and they can claim their share.
Funny point about good things such as wisdom, kindness, and other such things...taking some for yourself, even hoarding them, never seems to diminish what is still available to share with everybody else.
In fact, finding some for yourself seems to create more for others.
Labels: donovan baldwin, happiness, kindness, rewards, virtues, wisdom, wise
Monday, October 30, 2017
The Me Of Now And The Me Of Another Time
By: Donovan Baldwin
I have been "me" for a long time. Long enough to realize that the "me" of any given era or moment is not always an exact replica of the "me" of another time.
This sometimes is brought to my attention by some comment made about one of my posts, articles, or poems. Usually in some form of disagreement, which is fine, by the way.
At a "negative" comment, first I feel something like "you don't know what you're talking about..."
Then, however, I think about the other person's point of view, and try to understand why they say what they say, and, unless it's entirely egregious, I try to grasp their point of view. Doesn't mean I have to agree with them or change my belief, just listen, and try to hear and understand what lies behind the words.
Sometimes, at this time, I realize that they have stated an opinion or belief that I held at some previous point of my existence. Perhaps myself as a younger man, more easily aroused to anger at injustice...real or perceived.
Perceptions, and reactions, change with age, and experience, for, if not made up of experience, action and reaction, what is age, but measurement of time.
It was once believed that age was, in some way, a rough equivalent of wisdom. Perhaps it's not wisdom so much as the accumulated scar tissue and the internal memoirs that come with having lived long...but, perhaps, not prospered.
Yet, we DO prosper in many ways, not just the material.
Maybe my "wisdom" is my perception of life.
This sometimes is brought to my attention by some comment made about one of my posts, articles, or poems. Usually in some form of disagreement, which is fine, by the way.
At a "negative" comment, first I feel something like "you don't know what you're talking about..."
Then, however, I think about the other person's point of view, and try to understand why they say what they say, and, unless it's entirely egregious, I try to grasp their point of view. Doesn't mean I have to agree with them or change my belief, just listen, and try to hear and understand what lies behind the words.
Sometimes, at this time, I realize that they have stated an opinion or belief that I held at some previous point of my existence. Perhaps myself as a younger man, more easily aroused to anger at injustice...real or perceived.
Perceptions, and reactions, change with age, and experience, for, if not made up of experience, action and reaction, what is age, but measurement of time.
It was once believed that age was, in some way, a rough equivalent of wisdom. Perhaps it's not wisdom so much as the accumulated scar tissue and the internal memoirs that come with having lived long...but, perhaps, not prospered.
Yet, we DO prosper in many ways, not just the material.
Maybe my "wisdom" is my perception of life.
Labels: age, donovan baldwin, poems, wisdom
