beat #28 - jasmine [proverbs, day 1] (Wednesday, May 1, 2013 / 1:10 PM)
"for attaining wisdom and discipline;
for understanding words of insight;
for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair"
Proverbs 1: 2-4
Wisdom when we meet her in Chapter 1 is personified female calling in the street, a doomsday prophet intentionally ignored.
What an apt way to introduce her.
Wisdom today is a concept over-personified, over-abstracted and under-practiced.
How often do I hear "wisdom...wisdom...wisdom..." and how much do I understand of her?
I do not know wisdom intimately, in fact, I barely recognize the sight of her. Only when she has passed me by, and I catch the scent of her hair lingering in the air do I realize that perhaps we were so close, and I did not respond.
But perhaps I should stop straining to see her face, and stop to look in the mirror.
I shall examine the outline of my own.
After all, wisdom is to be attained and I am to become her.
How do I move from metaphor to the material?
Maybe the answer is already given: to understand words of insight, to acquire a disciplined and prudent life, to do what is right, and just and fair.
There is much to learn, and it starts with my own reflection.
"For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them;
But whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear or harm."
Proverbs 1:32-33
Waywardness and complacency.
How do I frame the presence of these in my life?
waywardness is a translation of the word
mĕshuwbah and it means to turn away, or turn back.
complacency is a translation of the word
shalvah which means quietness or ease.
To me it doesn't seem like these two qualities are inherently bad, in fact I can imagine a multitude of situations where these qualities are probably beneficial.
It is however, the turning back of the
simple, and the ease of the
foolish that will kill and destroy.
Wisdom is talking to simpletons and fools, and they are lazy, and indolent.
We are wayward and complacent when wisdom calls us.
Am i?
Yes, yes i am.
I enjoy where I am, so I am reluctant to move forward.
I wander in circles around wisdom, because I'd rather dance around than hold on to it.
What is the flash in my mirrored reflection?
...Pride and Blinders...
It has always been pride and blinders.
