I occasionally look back on decisions that I made years ago and cringe, but then quickly remind myself that those decisions were by a different person. I knew far less and certainly had different priorities.
People who discount the importance of experience make me wonder if they seriously believe that their own wisdom has not increased over the past ten years. True, there are people who learn one year's worth of wisdom ten times over but most folks, I suspect, accumulate an impressive amount of street smarts. While getting some scars and earning your stripes, you build an instinct that tells you which doors to open and which to nail shut.
You don't have one life. You have many because, at different stages, you have been a different person. Look at yourself in an old photograph and you may wish that you could travel back in time to tell that callow youth a thing or two.
That, of course, pertains to wisdom. Physical changes are a different matter. As the years pass, there may well be days when you look into the mirror and ask, "How do I reach the zipper to get out of this costume?"
1 comment:
Wisdom must be sought to be found, Michael. Many and many people I know do not seek to learn the lessons life and providence sends them. Instead, like the old saying goes, they make the same recipe over and over and are constantly suprised they keep getting pound cake instead of chocolate.
"Wisdom calls out in the streets. She shouts loudly in the plazas" (Prov 1:20). How true this is! Everyone can hear her and grow wise, but how many fail to listen?
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