Whence Comes Wisdom? 

Since World War II and the introduction of the G.I. Bill (aiding the higher education of war veterans), we've probably had the best educated population of any nation in history.  College grads want their children to become college or tech school grads, and so forth.  But there's one thing we haven't gotten right yet.  We have yet to recognize and appreciate the advanced wisdom that comes only through the voices of age and experience.  Today's society, at least in the United States, does not acknowledge this publicly, if at all.  Maybe because we are still, at less than 250 years old, a relatively young nation, and a youth-worshipping one as well, we still live in a world where credentials seem to mean everything.   We have yet to grasp the truth that experience is life's best teacher.  Not the only one, mind you, but the best one. 

 A friend of mine in the banking industry found this to be true, when his ability to turn around from red to black a failing bank and build branches for his company was not enough to overcome his lack of a bachelor's degree when he found the need to change jobs and obtain something suitable to his record.  I too found this to be true when an agent told me that forty years of working with children of all ages and under many differing circumstances was not sufficient to author a book on parenting, since my degree did not specialize in the field of medicine (especially pediatrics) or child psychology.  Nor does our present attitude explain why, when I served as housemother in a receiving home a number of years ago, the social workers, though trained in youth work, invariably asked me how to handle their wayward charges living in the home. 

I remember reading a number of years ago that the Japanese honor the age of sixty as the beginning of the "wisdom years,"and consider the elderly to be a precious asset to their national culture.  It stands to reason that, having lived through many and varied circumstances, senior citizens would have learned something of value from their many past mistakes as well as the multitude of  ideas and techniques they've found to work well. With a large number of baby boomers beginning to enter their senior years now, maybe it would be a good idea for us in the U.S. to join them. 

The wise will listen; the foolish will blow off such learnings as relics of another era or the musings of "old fuddy-duddies."  Let's see: What is that well-known saying?  "A word to the wise is sufficient."

Your wise (I hope) and insightful (I've been told) blogging friend,

Margaret

P.S.  I welcome your comments on this.  What do you think?  Do you think we should start something here?