by H Shawn

Created on: July 12, 2009   Last Updated: July 13, 2009

Wisdom is not knowledge nor skill. It is the fusion of both. Wisdom is the application of knowledge - using skills - on a practical and feasible basis. A wise man is not one who is able to score 'A's. A wise man is not the policeman who knows how to use a gun - to betray justice. A wise man is one who is able to utilise his knowledge of the gun and his skills to perform an act of moral goodness.

How does one acquire wisdom?

Wisdom is applying past failures and successes into the present, for a practical use. The very fact that wisdom is gained through past failures and successes is a very troubling one. No one lives a million years to learn all of life's lessons. No one has enough years to fail a hundred tests before going off to university. Let's face the fact that we do not have enough time.

And that is why Eleanor Roosevelt wisely said, "Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself."

Wisdom is acquired through experience - of yourself and others. Your friend's incessantly noisy daughter could be the learning point for you - when you have a child, next time discipline him/her. The ever-changing skies teach something too - life is never a constant, thus we must be able to adapt to changes.

If we learn from the people around us, we can learn more than from our own experiences. We can avoid failures by analysing other's failures, and not making the same mistakes again when we attempt that act. We can look at past successes to see how we can reuse - and adapt - these plans to organise a successful event.

This is the only way human civilisation will ever progress - Wisdom. The application of our past successes and failures have brought us from cavemen, to technology smarts. And will eventually bring us from technology to even greater advancements. Wisdom is the stepping stone to progress. The progress of a nation depends on the wisdom of its nations, the wisdom of not only the country's past failures and successes, but the wisdom of other nation's failures and successes. Same goes for the human life itself. Life can only be improved through wisdom. Wisdom is the currency of the future.

Without wisdom, life is but a textbook. Without proper use of wisdom, life is but a useless skill misused for acts of evil.

So let's take a leaf out of people's books and analyse them, look at the good and bad points, improve on them and then you will truly acquire wisdom and bring a better future for humanity and the bigger cause that God entitled us to.

Learn more about this author, H Shawn.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.