It happened once again.
The clock kept ticking and another
birthday came and went – just like it does every year.
I have been roaming this earth for a
little more than half a century, soaking up knowledge and storing it
in the vast intellectual vault that is my brain.
OK, I will admit a lot of that
knowledge is absolutely worthless. Did you know cockroaches have
teeth in their stomachs to break down their food? Now you do.
Just another useless tidbit of
information I have archived over the years. I could barely remember
the information in a book I am studying, but I do know all bananas
have a very low level of natural radiation.
But I am much wiser now than I was 20
or 30 years ago.
There is a difference between being
smart and being wise.
Smart will help you figure out quantum
mechanics, wise will help you realize you are not smart enough to
figure out quantum mechanics.
There have been many instances when I
have passed my hard-earned wisdom on to my children – only to have
it completely ignored.
Not because it was poor advice, but
because teenagers know everything in the world that has ever been
worth knowing.
Junior bought a truck a while back. A
great big four-wheel drive that is much more truck than he required.
A co-worker asked me why he needed a
truck that big.
“He didn't 'need' one that big, he
'wanted' one that big.”
And to a teen, 'want' and 'need' are
very often the same thing.
While the truck is in pretty decent
shape, it needed new tires before long
Wisdom told me the rubber would be
expensive. And when I mentioned that to Junior, he replied, “I
know.”
I told him they would cost more than
$1,000.
“I know.”
I told him with the bank loan,
insurance and his social life, coming up with that kind of money will
be hard.
“I know.”
Well, the time has come for the rubber
to hit the road and that rubber is going to cost a bundle.
When I mentioned it is time to replace
all four tires, he replied “Ya, but they are expensive.”
To which I had the great pleasure of
responding with, "I know."
My son is very smart, but he is not
very wise.
What young lad is, really?
I wasn't at that age.
It has taken five decades to accumulate
such a vast wealth of knowledge and intelligence. Well, knowledge
anyway, I have never claimed to have an abundance of intelligence.
It is a shame you cannot download all
that wisdom to your children, saving them from making he same
mistakes you made at that age.
But because it is the first time they
have done or experienced something, teens think it is something
completely new and us 'old people' wouldn't understand.
What the kiddies don't appreciate is us
'old people' have already walked that path, we have already
experienced what they are now just discovering.
I am sure my own father wished he could
have injected his wisdom into my teenage brain, just like his father
and his father before him.
But before you can be old and wise, you
must be young and stupid.
I admit, I took the stupid part to new
heights (well, new to me anyway), but what teen didn't do stupid
things in the name of adventure and excitement?
Wisdom teaches you it is not smart to
try and jump a barbedwire fence with your dirtbike. The stupidity of
youth says 'Go for it, dude.'
Wisdom also knows new tires for a big
truck are expensive, eating fast food several times a week is not
good for you and the world will not stop rotating if you do not get
the latest and greatest gadget.
Not all 'old people' are wise, and I
have some peers who are still making some very dumb decisions.
Fortunately, I am now wise enough to not make the same choices.
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