The Root of Wisdom (1999)


Roger Bissell

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Objective Self-Awareness as the Root of Wisdom

by Roger E. Bissell

May 7, 1999

What is wisdom and how do you get it?

I certainly think that I have more of it now than I did 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. I think wisdom happens when a person lives long enough to figure out what things they can change and what things they can't. I don't think most young people are wise, but probably some of them (a minority) get wise at an early age. (And I don't mean "street wise.")

Part of being able to figure out the difference between what you can and can't change requires your being willing to face the fact that there are some things you can't change--i.e., that you are not all-powerful or omnipotent.

Part of getting into bad patterns of activity and relationships is from thinking you can fix whatever goes wrong, especially with another person, when actually you can fix very little about some one else. Realizing this is part of becoming wise. It took me about 40 years to (mostly) get it. But that willingness to face one's limitations is the key, which means that one has to overcome whatever arrogance and pride one may have that is just not realistic about the amount of power one has.

(It's OK to be proud about what you can do and have done, so long as you acknowledge if and when you had help, as well as whatever accomplishments might have been largely a matter of luck or being in the right place at the right time.)

I guess what I'm talking about is stepping back from one's self and getting some objectivity, some clear recognition of one's nature and limitations. In other words, a fresh and more realistic attitude about one's self than one perhaps started out with.

The other side of it is to hang on to your true powers and abilities and not sell them out or deny them.

Some people have trouble giving up their pessimism (perhaps instilled by parents) and admitting that they really can make a difference about some things. Again, an attitude must change for wisdom to be possible--this one being a willingness to acknowledge that one is not impotent, that one does have power, however limited it might be, to change things and make things better.

All in all, I'd say wisdom presupposes being willing to let go of one's self-magnifying and/or self-shrinking attitudes and to see one's self as one really is. Only then, I think, will one be able to look out realistically at the world and see what is possible to one and what is not.

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  • 1 year later...

This article truly has made me view myself in a new light. I'm most appreciative for this and, now, I am more proud of myself. I now know that I don't have to belittle myself in any matter or make myself out to be something that I'm not. Knowing that gives me satisfaction within me...and that's the ultimate joy. :)

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