Who are you? Who am I? | Week 1

January | Wisdom | Week 1 | 1/5/2023
Sourcing: How important is the search for wisdom in your life, and where do you find it?

Looking around my 750 square foot apartment in Charlotte, there isn't a whole lot of space on the walls, but what space is available, I've populated with as much wisdom as possible. To my right, within viewing distance of my desk, there are two pieces of paper taped to the wall. On them, 50 Stoic Rules, which I took from an Instagram post by Ryan Holiday (The Daily Stoic). #4, "Think progress, not perfection." To my left, stands a seven foot book shelf with books on topics ranging from psychology to astrophysics. Classics like Animal Farm sit next to yet-to-be-declared classics like The Power of Now. Inside my bedroom two posters hang, each a cover art for a Jordan Peterson book; 12 Rules for Life: The Antidote to Chaos and Beyond Order: 12 More Rules, littered with bits of wisdom like Rule #7,"Pursue what is meaningful, not what is expedient." Finally, the single most important piece of wisdom I own, hangs by my bed. The Desiderata - an incredibly profound text by Max Ehrmann, given to me and my brothers by my father at our 16th birthdays. A piece of text I consider to be my creed; "Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence." 

The search for wisdom is, for me, one of the vital tasks of a life well lived. As far as I can surmise, there are 5 overarching concepts worth pursuit in this life. [1] Nurturing love in a family, [2] creating meaningful friendships, [3] experiencing life (take) and adding to the collective experience of life (give), [4] exploring the limits of your body, and [5] cultivating wisdom to pass on. There is a very old idea, dating back to the ancient Greeks, which postulates that the use of rationality is the defining feature of sentience, and therefore of the utmost importance in its exploration and employment. Scientifically this is well-founded, as we are the only creatures capable of running scenario analysis, and consciously diverging from biological impulse through the utilization of rationality. Essentially, the investigation of our environment and the dominion over it, as well as the investigation of morality and the self, is where rationality meets religion. The point of intersection of these two lines is in essence the cultivation of wisdom. I think this effort can be best summarized by pairing the following two Latin phrases: Sapere aude and temet nosce - Dare to Know and Know Thyself. These are the twin vectors required for the cultivation of wisdom.

When I was 13 my Dad walked into my room and handed me a copper placard. It was heavy and solid. He told me to hang it on my wall, and that one day, after I'd read the words engraved on it over and over, I'd need the wisdom it carried. My Dad wasn't one for monologues. He didn't waste his breath. He wrote Op-eds for the local newspaper and his were usually the shortest in the lineup, but to me they packed the biggest punch. As I've learned over the years, he's cultivated a substantial amount of wisdom which manifests in concise thinking and speech. The placard was created by my Grandfather, his Dad, in Alcoholics Anonymous. On it read the AA creed, "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference."  Looking back at the unique challenges I've faced, which started not long after I received the placard, I realize he had tremendous foresight in giving that placard to me, not my two other brothers, and insisting that I read it, memorize it, and know it. It guided me through many dark years and it turned out to be one of the most important launching pads for my own investigation of wisdom. 

I'll close with a concept I learned about recently called The Golden Thread of Philosophy. John Vervaeke spoke about it in his series "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis". The author Joscelyn Godwin describes it as, "the interconnectedness of esoteric wisdom in the Western world, from classical antiquity to contemporary Europe and America." The Melbourne School of Philosophy describes it as, "A thread which weaves through every aspect of life and which, when grasped, can carry us back to that source while helping us to make sense of the journey along the way." 

Put simply, wisdom began to emerge in tandem with the emergence of the modern human, some point as far back as we can trace written word and stories. As far back as the Old Testament. This thread, which has been added to and built upon by major thinkers, philosophers, scientists, revolutionaries and laymen alike, culminated in the wisdom that brought us the prosperity and freedom we now experience in the modern Western World, thousands of years later. The modern Western World is humanity's first real, in aggregate escape from the suffering of pure survival. I find meaning in the exploration of that thread and source wisdom through the translation of that thread into the experiences of my own life. I find wisdom internalizing the concise phrases and rules listed above. I find it in the deep conversations I have with my closest friends. I find it in mundane repetition which leads to mastery. I find it in my trials and tribulations, in my longest nights and in the fleeting blips of bliss that emerge and dissipate with awe and profundity.