Archive for the ‘Wisdom’ Category

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Wasting Time

February 20, 2024

“What fools call ‘wasting time’ is most often the best investment,”wrote Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his little book of aphorisms The Bed of Procrustes.

Some of us feel that we must fill every waking second with something. Work. Reading a book. Scrolling social media. Meetings. Shopping.

Sometimes boredom is a good thing. Just sitting doing nothing. Thoughts wandering like a summer breeze. 

Sometimes taking a walk outside. Going nowhere. No music; no podcasts.

Yesterday during my afternoon walk I greeted a number of people…and dogs. I watched two otters swim in the creek behind my house. I listened to Sandhill Cranes squawking until one that was in front of me decided to fly just over my head to join the others.

And I was refreshed. And percolated ideas for writing. And appreciated what God has created outside and in me.

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Second Guessing

February 14, 2024

American professional football just held its annual championship game. The two teams competed well. The coaches prepared the teams with skill and ingenuity. The players individually played with passion and athleticism. It was thrilling with one team winning on the last play.

I scanned my few news sources the next morning only to see some reporter propose that the losing coach blew one or more decisions at the end leading to the loss.

This is a person who never did the hundreds of things that bring a team together that eventually plays for the championship. But the headline received many clicks, and he got paid.

How often do we sit on the sidelines second-guessing the people actually making the decisions and doing the work? The pastor screwed up again. Or the committee or organization leader fails to lead—to our satisfaction. But how often do we stand up and take the chance to lead? This second guessing leads to dissension and division.

Worse  still is when we second guess ourselves. “If only” thinking can ruin our lives. We can live in despair for years with that thinking. Of course we need to learn from experience. How often we say “I’ll not do that again!” Beware living the “if only I…” life. It leads nowhere.

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Taming the Tongue

February 8, 2024

James, one of the first leaders of the Jesus Movement, wrote about the tongue. It’s a small part of the body, he says, yet like the bridle in a horses’s mouth or the rudder of a ship, it can move great things. Like a forest fire started by a small fire the tongue is a fire.

Every species of beast or bird or reptile or sea creature can be tamed—but not the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

Every one of us has experienced recriminations from saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Each of us has hurt someone sometime by saying something hateful.

And yet we believe we have the “right” to say whatever we want whenever we wish—without suffering from the repercussions.

Why are we shocked when we spread lies, half-truth, hate and then people respond strongly against us?

We can say whatever comes to mind first. That doesn’t mean we should. Wise people choke back those first comments, count to 10 or even 100, and then see the harm those words would cause and how better off the world would be if we stay silent.

Words have power—use them wisely.

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There is Understanding and Then There is Opinion

January 18, 2024

Try out some wisdom on yourself that is at least 3,000 years old. I guess people have been the same since the beginning of culture. From the book of Proverbs (18:2)

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing personal opinion.

We experienced that often even before social media amplified it I seldom watch TV news, but what I have seen amplifies this with the appropriate (trained) facial expressions.

I catch myself—have I researched this appropriately or am I merely parroting some thought that originated in Russia or China?

Or, perhaps we violate this additional warning (18:13).

If one gives answer before hearing, it is folly and shame.

How often we impulsively blurt out an often stupid opinion on someone’s problem without ever fully listening and understanding.

I have that problem, too. Working on it…

Posted in Attitude, Learning, Listening, Wisdom | Leave a Comment »

First Things

January 17, 2024

Physicists talk of first principles. The basic laws or principles of nature. You can jump from a second-story window and hope you won’t fall and break some bones, but you will fall. Gravity is a law. 

One of my mentors when I was learning mechanical design told me, “You can’t violate the laws of physics.”

Another first is what you do.

Suggestion:

Put first things first.

What is your first thing, your first principle? Or your next first thing?

God? Work? Family? Yourself? Your image? Your addiction?

Better sort out what the really important first thing is. Then put it first. Use intention. Don’t drift into it. Or, you may drift into violating a law of nature and wind up with fractured health or relationships or life.

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Holding Your Tongue

January 16, 2024

I write several emails a day responding to various requests for my time and attention. I have discovered that I need to take a deep breath, refocus, then cut 80% of what I’ve written. 

I say too much. Explain too much. Drag in thoughts about motivations that probably are not there. I can get snippy, especially when tired or stressed.

Reading a chapter of Proverbs a day for January in order to start the year on the right foot, I noticed over and over the admonitions of reining in anger and minding your tongue.

Every time I have violated that prescription I have lived with regret.

And I know better.

The distance from knowing to speaking or writing within the brain is short. The only circumventing technology is a breath. Maybe also counting. Take Jesus’ advice to Peter about forgiving and use it here—count 70 times 7.

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Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

January 10, 2024

Apologies to Paul Simon and his 59th Street Bridge Song:

Slow down, you move too fast

You got to make the morning last

Just kicking down the cobblestones

Looking for fun and feeling groovy

Paul Simon, 59th Street Bridge Song

We have laptop on the lap. Amazon is so easy. Instead of getting off our butts and going to a store like millennia of shoppers, we click and buy. Next day, delivery.

I cannot for the life of me fathom why a 55-and-older community has so many people in a hurry. But as I go out for morning exercise, I cannot believe the number of speeding cars who also have not enough time to stop at a stop sign.

I just listened to an interview with Michael Easter, author of Scarcity Brain: Fix Your Craving Mindset and Rewire Your Habits to Thrive with Enough. He talked about staying for a while in a monastery and again staying with natives in the Arctic. He learned to slow down. Then he felt much better—mentally and physically.

Once I rushed everything I did. Perhaps it was Chicago traffic that helped cure that inner urge to rush. If you can’t go anywhere faster than 5 mph, then you just turn on some good music and chill.

Paul Simon had an image of just kicking down the cobblestones on the approach to the 59th Street Bridge in New York. We all need an image of slowing, taking it easy, feeling groovy. We can get our work done without raising a cloud of dust—and anxiety.

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A Proverb

January 9, 2024

The adventure of life is to learn.

The purpose of life is to grow.

The nature of life is to change.

The challenge of life is to overcome.

The essence of life is to care.

The opportunity of life is to serve.

The beauty of life is to give.

A Proverb

This “proverb” that I picked up somewhere in my reading is not from “The Proverbs”. These are great verbs to consider incorporating into our lives this year.

Learn, Grow, Change, Overcome, Care, Serve, Give.

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Dear Prudence

January 8, 2024

I don’t know how many times I have read the eighth chapter of the book of Proverbs. I stared at the words and one word popped into consciousness—prudence. Why have I not pondered that word before?

The associated thought was the song from the 1968 Beatles “White Album” written by John Lennon to Prudence Farrow, the sister of actress Mia Farrow—Dear Prudence. 

There was a time when the fashion was to name girls after positive character traits—Hope, Grace,  and yes, Prudence.

But what is prudence? Why should Wisdom, the narrator of the Proverbs, emphasize it?

Prudence is a discipline of oneself, a behavior of minimizing or avoiding risk, making good and careful decisions.

Pause here and reflect on all the hasty and ill-taken decisions taken. They come flooding into my consciousness.

Just as we need to count to ten (or count to ten ten times) before replying to certain statements, a pause before making a final decision on a purchase or a course of action is also, well, prudent.

A person even into their 20s who rush into decisions would look at prudence as crimping their freedom of action. For those of us who have been burned by bad decisions, we have learned prudence. Rushing to decision—or when someone is pressuring us to rush into a decision—usually turns out for the worse.

Prudence. Yes, a worthy character trait to infuse into our lives.

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Whatever Else Get Insight

January 5, 2024

As the story goes, Solomon was about to become king at a young age. God said to him, what would you like? Solomon asked for wisdom. He got enough to fill two books. His renown for wisdom spread through the known world.

Yet his life was a shambles. His son destroyed the kingdom in short order.

Reading through the book of Proverbs every January starts the year off providing a solid foundation for which to build a good life in the new year.

Buried in the beginning of Chapter 4 lies a bit of a warning.

Get wisdom, and whatever else you get, get insight.

Wisdom itself will not provide the righteous and good life. People with PhDs who have no sense about how to live are more numerous than stars you can count at night.

Insight—accurate and deep understanding; the capacity to gain understanding; to perceive clearly or deeply.

Do not merely read through the proverbs. Take some time daily to ponder them. Think about the meaning. Think about how these apply to how I will live today.

Need an example of wisdom without insight and the ability to live out the wisdom—think Solomon.

Don’t be a Solomon. Be like someone who puts wisdom into action—be like Jesus.

Posted in Awareness, discernment, Thinking, Wisdom | Leave a Comment »

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