We have all heard the adage ‘the older the wiser’ and have rarely thought of questioning it. And why would we? There are so many other similar messages that reinforce it – experience is the best teacher inter alia.
Today, as I read through many of my essays dating back to when I was 12 years old, I was reminded of many lessons forgotten and faded. In this rediscovery is a new lesson – she may be younger but wiser nonetheless.
I read through a line of unrestrained questioning that only comes with the courage of youth. While I am still very much of the mind that a good question does far more than a perfect answer, my questions, these days, oscillate between meticulous and rhetorical.
I feel both a yearning to learn and a devoid of inspiration – the downside of too much access to information, is you realize everything is flawed and nothing is enough.
We’ve heard ‘this’ before.
‘That’s’ been done before.
We’ve reached the toxic side of positivity.
And negativity has reached a new normal.
It’s way too easy to subscribe and cancel and the flawed nature of being human is far too much on display.
The lines between standards and expectations have never been blurrier, and even imperfection has a higher passing average.
We seem to have all the answers at our fingertips but our questions filled with doubt have never been louder.
Everyone we looked up to is long gone – in body or spirit.
What’s left is a sea of artificial intelligence, bringing tidal waves of misinformation and one clear message – either sink or swim.
Critical thinking and resilience have abandoned ship.
And as we drown in this deluge of discernment, the only lifeguards in sight are armchair experts chanting ‘You’ve got this’, ‘We’re in this together’, ‘Stay strong and carry on’, every now and again to induce just enough dopamine that keeps us afloat.
We repeat ‘We’ve got this, ‘We’re in this together’, ‘Stay strong and carry on’, and surrender our faith to an organized doctrine of our choice – religion, politics, capitalism – as we fight to survive.
And we forget to listen to the one working the hardest to keep us alive – our heart.
Every beat of our heart holds a lesson from the past, lived or inherited.
But it is our choice to pay heed – to our heart, our past.
And it’s our life to live and lead. Or outsource.
Everything we need to know lies within us – our bones, our blood, our soul.
This is the oldest proven lesson, one that has stood the test of evolution – both human and technological.
I can’t help but wonder that maybe, just maybe, the measure of wisdom over time may not necessarily have anything to do with the age of the person imparting it. Perhaps it has everything to do with standing the test of time.
The lessons I learned over these years, having aged like fine wine, certainly attest to this.
We are our own self-fulfilling prophecy and why history repeats itself.
The characters may be different, but the story is the same.
As life’s story unfolds, and with it the wisdom it holds, all we have to do is play a character of our choice and experience it fully until it’s time to play another one.
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