Caltrops - Rants - The Price of Wisdom?

Forum Overview :: Rants

by Little Crow 01/26/2003, 2:14am PST

This time of year always leaves me in a peculiar kind of mindset. I find myself looking back, thinking about the past alot. There are several important anniversaries for me that all intersect in mid-January. Big anniversaries, you see? Like these huge, epic milestones.

I've had... an interesting life. Wait, isn't that a Chinese curse of some sort? Close enough to living in interesting times, I guess. I've learned some incredible things from all of it. But the thing I'm trying to get at, the whole point of this post, is this: what price, wisdom? My belief, which seems to have been hammered into me all this life of mine, is that the greater the value of the wisdom you're gaining, the more costly the price will be to you. In pain, of some measure. A cost. I'd welcome opinions on that. Does ultimate knowledge require paying the ultimate cost? I'm wagering "yes." The last, best lesson will only be paid with our very lives. We all find that one out, I guess, don't we?

But unfortunately, also many times you don't know the cost of the lesson before you get taught, haha. You have to pay, anyway. I think this is why it's so fucking hard to try to really teach someone something very important. Without some commitment, some price being paid, it's impossible to truly internalize these... truths. I have these two young nephews. 14 and 19. The older one is stupid the way only 19-yr. olds can be, of course. But he's getting kicked in the nuts by life enough to make him start to listen sometimes to what I tell him is true, you know? But the younger one is almost too young to even try to talk to. He doesn't understand why I can't teach him what I know. I told him if I really tried, it would be like giving a diamond to a monkey. He would be holding something of incalculable value, but wouldn't even realize it. Hell, probably just toss it away. At this part of the analogy, he looks at me funny. Ah, to be young and stupid again. It's also a hard concept to impress that some things you don't want to learn. It's just not worth the price...

So all this looking back is mostly not a real fun time. But I also find that the reminiscing keeps the knowledge reinforced; some lessons had such a terrible price I don't ever want to forget, you know?

Pain is the teacher.

Cheers!
Little Crow