o be wise. what can I say more?

Stumbled across this pic yesterday. It made me laugh. Ld snapped it years ago and It is a testament to foolishness. My eyes are bandaged because for the umpteenth time I had stayed awake reading late into the night without taking my contact lenses out. I scratched my corneas and the doctor applied a healing salve and bandaged them up for a couple of days. It hurt. A lot. Gives new meaning to the pop-teeny phrase 'I wanted to stab my eyes out'. That's exactly what it felt like.

You would think that I would learn after the first time. Thing is, this picture wasn’t the first time. I had done this several times before and I guess thought that I could avoid the known consequences.

I am such a dumb A sometimes.

I wish I could say that this was the only stupid and foolish thing I have done in my life. Not so. I have been unwise so many times. Thinking I could ignore the wisdom of the ages and order the universe to wag my way.

Some truths then about wisdom. From an old gal who has made some howling mistakes in her life:

1) John Wayne said it best. Life is tough. It's even tougher when you're stupid.
It's near impossible to act all wise when you don't know stuff. Again the case for being educated here, people.
But even then, wisdom requires the right use of knowledge. To know and not do, is to not yet know. Knowing how to use or apply knowledge is the key. The world is full of smart fools.

2) One of the biggest marker for maturity is the pause between the thought and the act. Foolish people act impulsively, arrogantly and without thinking. The pause is where I sometimes get tripped up.

3) Wisdom, then, is the ability to see consequences. It's really an approach to life, a way of looking at the world and a way of living it out in very deliberate, rational ways. Living a wise life means you don't wander around aimlessly being morally ignorant. Wisdom is the opposite of that. We ignore the wisdom of the ages at our peril. There's a reason it's the wisdom of the ages, afterall. It's been proven time and time again through history, scripture, human experience and literature, too, to be the best way. To try to ignore a better, proven choice, is just, well, foolish. The scriptures say it best: BE YE NOT SO STUPID.

4) Fortunately and mercifully there is more to me (and you, too) than all of the combined incredibly dumb things I have ever done. Growth as a person helps to balance things out. Mistakes, stupid ones at that, are for learning from.