Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Older or wiser?

Older or wiser? Older and wiser? A year has gone by. I have just been in contact with a person who I had business dealings with a year ago and we were reviewing something we looked at last year. He commented on how quickly the year had gone but that we were "older and wiser". It intrigued me because it is such a flippant remark made often. The reality is though, are we? Older certainly, but with each passing year I feel wiser with regard to many things, more self aware, but ironically more hesitant about making decisions. Is this hesitancy wisdom? Or is it a declining confidence as a result of a lifetime of decisions that did not pan out the way I had hoped?

In a society that doesn't really value older people, I worry that when I reach the point in my life of not working I will become alienated in sharing wisdom. Yes my children and grandchildren can share in my thoughts and values, as can friends, but as a western community I wish we still held some of the automatic deference to the elderly.

Wisdom comes in all sorts of shapes and forms. But it is different from knowledge. I believe wisdom is knowledge with soul. And I have a lot of that so after some deliberation I believe that indeed not only am I older but wiser as well.

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