I like to read books. A lot of people today don’t. Books in many ways are going the way of the dinosaur. These days everyone rushes around so much and pretty much does everything on their smartphone, tablet, computer etc. But books are tactile. A book is a thing that you can hold in your hand. It’s made of paper and that paper has an earthy feel to it that in my humble opinion you just can’t get from words on a digital screen. (and yes I do appreciate the irony of me typing that for you to read on a digital screen.. LOL ) … Irony aside, I don’t like e-books much, I try to actually get the book for this reason. Fact is with the of warm earthy energy that all books have, along with both the new and old book smell, your mind actually takes in the information better, or I should say more smoothly. This is because our sense are engaged, by touch, smell, and even taste as we lick our finger to turn the pages. Our senses are NOT engaged online or with our face planted in a smartphone. Human beings were designed and are made to operate ideally in nature utilizing our 5 main senses. Evidence of the difference between digital and books can be seen in today’s society, which is often referred to as the “instant gratification” society. People have all the information of the world at their fingertips, yet in my observations they use and learn from very little of it. In fact the average IQ has dropped substantially as technology has grown. We’re relying too much on other things to learn for us and do for us, and many scholars and scientists have been warning of the perils of this of this for years.
True wisdom along with books seems to be going the way of the dinosaur. I give one rather simple yet common example of me being in a grocery store a couple years back and near me in the produce isle were two girls who were looking at onions. The head-girl we’ll call her was holding a smartphone, had the world at her fingertips, the only generation to ever have this kind of power thus far in human history. The words of Plato, the Library of Congress at her fingertips if she desired. And yet…. this moron turned to her friend and asked, “what’s a green onion?” as she picked one up. Never once did she use the smartphone in her hand to ask the question or type it into the browser. In fact I myself ended up answering her question for her after I watched these two idiots struggle with their dilemma for nearly 2 minutes. When I leaned over and answered their question they starred at me as if I was the Hermit Oracle from a forest cave who had just come down for monthly supplies. Granted I was wearing a full beard that day.. LOL … Me… well I just thought to myself I’ve never been more disappointed with cute girls in short-shorts in my life. LOL I’d have still banged them though… let’s be honest…. lol
Accumulated knowledge is the building block of “wisdom”, but true wisdom is the ability to ‘use” that knowledge and apply it to life’s experiences to benefit ourselves or others. Paradoxically we only gain wisdom through life experiences. So we must have them. Knowledge alone is NOT enough. My point is knowledge is only part of where “wisdom” comes from. Just because we have Google doesn’t mean we have “wisdom”. And if we don’t even bother to use Google and we stare at a bunch of green onions wondering what they are with the answer at our fingertips, well not only do we not have “wisdom”, we’re fucking moron!! Without true wisdom there’s little hope for the future.
What do I mean by that? If all you know is what you Google in the moment, you have no true wisdom. You’re just a nimrod with a smartphone, who in my example above literally would have left the store holding said smartphone having never used it to answer her own question. lt’s the information age but most people aren’t learning a damn thing. Wisdom is indeed going the way of the dinosaur, as are books. And that’s because people are rushing through their lives. Missing the point of it all and many if not all of the lessons available to them along the way. This is in part because so much of our life now is handed to us or done for us with the push of a button, or the tap of a screen. The younger generation was born into this. They’ve never had to figure much out. Life a great teacher. And like any great teacher knows it’s never good to just hand a student the answer. The act of figuring it out through deductive reasoning is priceless and actually plants the information in the brain better.
Why am I talking about wisdom and books? Well here’s a little philosophy for you. Life is like a book in many ways. We, not unlike a book live through chapters. Life is divided into phases i.e. chapters just like books. When I read a book, and I read often, I like to finish a chapter before I put the bookmark in and put the book down. For me it’s a sense of completion. A sort of moment of closure that makes me feel more comfortable in putting the book down for the evening. But when I pick the book back up again I won’t just dive into the new chapter I left off at. I usually go back and re-read at the least the last page or final paragraphs of the previous chapter. I do this to make sure I understand fully where the story or topic left off BEFORE I move on. This is a metaphor for life in many ways. We have to know where we’ve been and learn from it to both know where we’re going in the future and more importantly why.
This metaphor I’m using is actually one that appears to be lost on many in our society today who breeze through their lives on auto-pilot and glaze over important lessons, or worse yet push them aside all together. Our lives are divided into chapters for the same reason books usually are as I said. A book is a life, in fact a good book is actually “alive” as is a good song as well. Whether it’s fiction or non-fiction it tells a story, it walks through a life of some kind, or at the very least it’s a snapshot in time of one. Be-it in a book or in our lives chapters are transition points but we must retain their lessons or in the case of a book their meaning before moving to the next chapter. Sometimes chapters in both life and books involve starting a whole new life in a whole new place with new people, new relationships, new circumstances.
But the mistake many make in moving on and walking away from what was into what will be is one of not making sure first that they fully understand the lessons contained in the previous chapter. Because if we don’t fully understand those lessons we will only make the same mistakes over and over again, or repeat the same patterns of behavior over and over again in the next chapter. Which for many involves not learning the lessons about the people we surround ourselves with properly. So they leave one person, say goodbye to a chapter in their lives, only to get together in the new chapter with a younger or different version of the same person. I chuckle there, but the fact is not unlike with a book if we don’t understand what we’ve read thus far, we sure as hell won’t grasp on any level where we’re going. We will simple re-cover the same old ground. As Pink Floyd once famously sang in their song “Wish you were here”. “Running over the same out ground, year after year.” The lyric pertains to a lost soul.
So make sure as you zip your way through your life and move in and through its various chapters you don’t forget to learn and grow along the way. Everything in life moves in cycles. Physics would tell us this is because everything is energy. And energy is at a frequency and frequency IS measured in cycles. Everything that happens in a given cycle or chapter of our life, every person, every event, every job, everything contains within it a lesson to help us grow as we move through life’s various cycles. By growing and learning we gain wisdom. We in effect feed our soul. We sustain ourselves and feed our souls with growth, not stagnation and repetition. So make sure before you move on to the next chapter of your life you sit down and take a look at where you’ve been. If for no other reason than not to repeat it if it wasn’t satisfactory.
Because in closing, unless we understand where we’ve been and most importantly WHY we’ve been there, there is no way we can understand where we’re going. As books often teach us, the foibles and mistakes of history if not learned from are doomed to repeat over and over again. ALWAYS seek as much closure and knowledge as possible before moving to your next life chapter, or even book chapter.
Life is to be felt, loved, lived, & learned from. NOT rushed through, annoyed by, or worse yet suffered within. Life is not a struggle unless you make it one, or allow the expectations of others to do that for you. And while it can be stressful, that stress is often self-imposed and easily dealt with through proper perspective. Life is supposed to be fun and exploratory. And with all that exploring and fun comes a whole lot of education, and through that comes wisdom.
The devil always lives in the details. Which by the way I learned from a book! You remember books don’t you?
— Cheers
