Knowledge and Wisdom

Let’s get something straight here. I’m not a silver-haired (I admit it, I DO hit the bottle once in a while-hair color, for those of you wondering) elderly woman who has lived enough life to give the younger generation great morsels of wisdom. I hope to get to that place one day, but for now I will settle for what little I do know.

A retired friend once said this to me,” Knowledge and Wisdom are not the same.” I have pondered that little statement many times. I agreed with it when I first heard it and I agree with it now~even more so.

What good does it do to go to college, graduate school and beyond if you fail to apply wisdom with the knowledge you receive?  What’s the difference? Knowledge is the attaining of facts. I can go to school and become an outstanding surgeon with the proper training. Wisdom, or the lack of it, will dictate how I use that training. I could go on to do wonderful things and help save lives. I could also go off and use that medical knowledge for unethical, inhumane atrocities. This is a very basic comparison that I’m laying out for you.

I’ve seen, too often, where many will attain great knowledge and degrees only to use their new status in life as a pedestal to look down on others. Big mistake. Wisdom would say otherwise. Any time you give more value to things (knowledge included) rather than the relationships in your life, you make a grave error. It is my opinion that the relationships that we foster, for good or for bad, are what give us the most satisfaction or dis-satisfaction in life. We are all wired for relationship. When we don’t have good ones, we ache deep inside. When we have healthy ones, life seems to be good~even through difficult circumstances.

If you’re not careful, you could mistakenly confuse wisdom with knowledge. I don’t believe they’re even distant cousins! When used together though, wisdom and knowledge can give birth to some wonderful life-long legacies.

Just my opinion.