Wisdom

I read a book a long, long time ago by former NBA star Jerry Lucas. Damn, what was the name of that book? Oh, yes, it was "The Memory Book."

What’s the wisest gift anyone has ever given you?

Recently, I came across an intriguing campaign promoted by a wine brand owned by Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits.

Knowledge may be power, but wisdom is wealth. It’s experiential self-knowledge that accrues for a lifetime like an annuity that keeps paying you. Given the value of wisdom, it’s shocking we have so few ways to define and cultivate it.

I had a recent conversation with someone one-third my age who was angry at Boomers like me for screwing up the world. While being cordial to me, she used all kinds of stereotypes to describe my generation, much like how many people my age typecast Gen Z.

I’m writing this on a Delta flight sitting next to an 80-year old woman. This woman smiles at me. I smile back and then, meekly, turn to my lap which isn’t all that interesting. Connecting with a stranger, randomly assigned to you in the air is a truly liminal experience, right?! Especially when you know you have three hours ahead of you.

Excuse the expression, but I’m a "metaphor whore." You probably already knew that. I love and use metaphors shamelessly, whether it’s the caterpillar to butterfly journey to describe the three stages of transition or how the fine art of rock balancing is an MEA experiential leadership lesson, or what we call "mentoring stones."

You know I like to get geeky. Well, today is one of those days. MEA’s friend, Dr. Dilip Jeste, occasionally sends me some of his newest wisdom research. Here’s a hot-off-the-presses report on the relationship between the microbiome in our gut and loneliness and wisdom.

When Dan Steffey, 78, recently went to his boss, Eric Paine, 41, to say that he wanted to retire, Paine didn’t hesitate to politely decline his request. Five years earlier, Paine, CEO of rapidly-growing Community Development Partners (CDP), a mission-driven affordable housing development organization, had hired Steffey, a grizzled veteran of affordable housing in Oregon, to help them expand into the Pacific Northwest.

“Although an infant becomes a child simply by aging, a person cannot become an elder by simply becoming older. Elders fall into the category of things that are made, not born. Becoming an elder is not a “natural occurrence;” the qualities needed don’t simply develop from physical changes brought on by aging. Rather, there is something meta-physical involved; something philosophical and spiritual that is required. Old age alone doesn’t make the elder." - Michael Meade