Intelligence and Wisdom

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

I'm quite sure that both my boys are smarter than I am. Their grades are certainly a lot better than I got when I was their age. But I tell them there is a difference between intelligence and wisdom. In a few days, they will finish school to begin their summer vacation. An acquaintance is preparing to bury their child, a high schooler who died in a car crash. I don't like to use the word "accident", as that implies a randomness that is detached from intentions and thoughts. I told my boys that on occasion their destiny and indeed their very life may hang on the most trivial of events and contingencies-- a dare from a friend, a distraction from a cell phone, a few miles too fast in a car. It takes wisdom to recognize this and to keep one's life centered so that the right choices are made.

What is the source of these right choices? For most people such as myself, the journey to wisdom is one that stretches into adulthood and never really ends. But I think right choices have many roots that include our moral and family heritage, our inherent sense of right and wrong, and our own ethical compass. Whatever the sources, moral responsibility comes ultimately from ourself and no one and nothing else. Not our family. Not the church. Not the school. Not the state. We must take responsibility for ourself. We must be the captain of our soul.

For most people, there is little real growth towards wisdom. After 40 years, they may know more facts and have more experiences, but they are the same fools they were at ten and twenty. Conversely, they are people who are "old souls" at ten-- have a sense of perspective, proportion, and poise beyond their years.

Speaking for myself, I deny that I have no control over my life, and I realize that defies the conventional wisdom of most people, those who believe in fate, kismet, historical inevitability, predestination, sociobiology, behavorial psychology, and the movements of the stars. Of course, I have no choice over where I was born and to whom and my genetic makeup. By there are an infinity of other choices I can make that ultimately determine my happiness and destiny-- where I live, what do, who I marry, with whom I associate, how I send my lesiure time, whether I live honorably or dishonorably, rationally or irrationally. Those who choose wisely know that they chose wisely because they live lives of pleasure and fullfillment. Conversely, those who do not choose wisely experience pain and despair, although a mental block may prevent them from associating their pain with their intentionality.