Adulthood is a place for grown ups
They say with old age comes wisdom, but that isn't always so. In fact, oftentimes growing old can bring on a kind of moral malaise from burnout, and I bet that problem is getting worse these days. And perhaps to some being very moral isn't what wisdom is, anyway.
Today I realized something. I was reading the biography of John Milton after buying a $2 paperback copy of Paradise Lost from Goodwill to throw on my bookshelf. I like to put books like these on my shelf, but sometimes the introductions are the most interesting thing about them.
In reading the chronologically listed events of his life, near the end was his great work, Paradise Lost. But there were a surprising dozen or so other honorable mentions, other poetic contributions, a post granted by Oliver Cromwell as secretary for foreign language to the Council of State after Cromwell had come into power in England, and the many articles he wrote which contributed to the political revolution which was brewing in England and which were later in the text said to "prove prophetic" in years to come.
In my younger days I remember my husband liked to go and visit the library where he would find books on topics that interested him, but my being an unlearned and uninterested novice, led me to find interesting free stuff in the free books bin.
One time I came across a book by a female writer who liked to draw. The book was a regular sized paper back with more than twenty sketches throughout. A treasure? No! I was sad and embarrassed when I found this book because I liked to draw, too, and here was this nobody in the free book bin at the library. Later when I was taking a Women's Studies English course in school, that same nobody turned up again. I could have easily been distracted still by her being causally listed in a volume of contemporary women, but my outlook had changed.
We learn so much by doing, and what we do and what we try to accomplish makes all the difference. In school I took writing and drawing classes, I had minor and major successes. I realized that an honorable mention is not by any means a small honor. In the millions, and now billions, of human lives that share in all we do, to be outstanding in such a way is exceptional and unique.
Before now, I had always counted fame as some great accomplishment that now it has no claim to be. Achievements are not what they once were. Milton is a great example of how we take for granted all that our time and energies accumulate from birth to death. How we remember him is in general and popularly by one highly recognizable volume. But in actuality, his impact could be greater by volumes in titles most never knew.
When I was young, I was very foolishly jealous hearted, and I remember a moment that really changed my perspective and in a way that was monumental to my growing wiser and knowing that I was becoming so. I was looking at pictures in a book about Johnny Cash after I had seen "Walk the Line", his movie which had made me feel so sorry for his first wife, and jealous for her, after this glorification of his love affair had been so deliciously dramatized. Without challenging the love he had for June Cater, I realized looking at a picture how silly and simplistic we are when thinking of human relationships. Here was his first wife, years later, looking as happy and as emotionally healthy as anyone. Almost like she dodged a bullet. After all, she did get to move on.
A lot of what we think collectively about things is really only very shallow and naive. It is wise to take time to gain a larger perspective, and where it cannot be gained, realize that your view is only a fraction of what is out there. That is why we learn patience, and not to be angry too quickly, to listen to others before we come to conclusions, and ultimately, not to judge too quickly.
It is safe to say that aging will continue to bring these things to light. I suppose that is how age brings wisdom.
Today I realized something. I was reading the biography of John Milton after buying a $2 paperback copy of Paradise Lost from Goodwill to throw on my bookshelf. I like to put books like these on my shelf, but sometimes the introductions are the most interesting thing about them.
In reading the chronologically listed events of his life, near the end was his great work, Paradise Lost. But there were a surprising dozen or so other honorable mentions, other poetic contributions, a post granted by Oliver Cromwell as secretary for foreign language to the Council of State after Cromwell had come into power in England, and the many articles he wrote which contributed to the political revolution which was brewing in England and which were later in the text said to "prove prophetic" in years to come.
In my younger days I remember my husband liked to go and visit the library where he would find books on topics that interested him, but my being an unlearned and uninterested novice, led me to find interesting free stuff in the free books bin.
One time I came across a book by a female writer who liked to draw. The book was a regular sized paper back with more than twenty sketches throughout. A treasure? No! I was sad and embarrassed when I found this book because I liked to draw, too, and here was this nobody in the free book bin at the library. Later when I was taking a Women's Studies English course in school, that same nobody turned up again. I could have easily been distracted still by her being causally listed in a volume of contemporary women, but my outlook had changed.
We learn so much by doing, and what we do and what we try to accomplish makes all the difference. In school I took writing and drawing classes, I had minor and major successes. I realized that an honorable mention is not by any means a small honor. In the millions, and now billions, of human lives that share in all we do, to be outstanding in such a way is exceptional and unique.
Before now, I had always counted fame as some great accomplishment that now it has no claim to be. Achievements are not what they once were. Milton is a great example of how we take for granted all that our time and energies accumulate from birth to death. How we remember him is in general and popularly by one highly recognizable volume. But in actuality, his impact could be greater by volumes in titles most never knew.
When I was young, I was very foolishly jealous hearted, and I remember a moment that really changed my perspective and in a way that was monumental to my growing wiser and knowing that I was becoming so. I was looking at pictures in a book about Johnny Cash after I had seen "Walk the Line", his movie which had made me feel so sorry for his first wife, and jealous for her, after this glorification of his love affair had been so deliciously dramatized. Without challenging the love he had for June Cater, I realized looking at a picture how silly and simplistic we are when thinking of human relationships. Here was his first wife, years later, looking as happy and as emotionally healthy as anyone. Almost like she dodged a bullet. After all, she did get to move on.
A lot of what we think collectively about things is really only very shallow and naive. It is wise to take time to gain a larger perspective, and where it cannot be gained, realize that your view is only a fraction of what is out there. That is why we learn patience, and not to be angry too quickly, to listen to others before we come to conclusions, and ultimately, not to judge too quickly.
It is safe to say that aging will continue to bring these things to light. I suppose that is how age brings wisdom.
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