Wisdom, understanding, much to be...
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Wisdom, understanding, much to be desired, diligently to be sought -- and much more than merely a mass of information. It is one thing to know a bunch of facts, another thing to have some perception of what they mean.
In our time we tend to put a premium on cleverness, applaud the person who appears to be smart, who can be currently popular, currently successful. We like to apply the pragmatic test to everything: is it the productive thing? We are quite apt at adding up pros and cons on a calculator, and so we bounce from crisis to crisis like children playing rocktag, leaping from the convenience of one rock to that of another. Wisdom is more than this.
Bernard M. Baruch was for the first half of the 20th century a major figure in American political and economic life, advisor to half a dozen of our presidents. Just before his 84th birthday in 1954, he was asked by historian Will Durant about his philosophy of human affairs.
In reply, Baruch told the story of a man sentenced to death who obtained a reprieve by assuring the king that within a year he could teach his majesty's horse to fly, on condition that he then go free and that if he failed he would be put to death at the year's end. "Within a year," he later explained, "the king may die or change his mind, or I may die, or the horse may die; and furthermore, in a year, who knows? Maybe that horse will learn to fly!"
"My philosophy is like that man's," Baruch concluded. "I take the long view." Wisdom always does; and Christians, more than most, always can.
-- Mann
In our time we tend to put a premium on cleverness, applaud the person who appears to be smart, who can be currently popular, currently successful. We like to apply the pragmatic test to everything: is it the productive thing? We are quite apt at adding up pros and cons on a calculator, and so we bounce from crisis to crisis like children playing rocktag, leaping from the convenience of one rock to that of another. Wisdom is more than this.
Bernard M. Baruch was for the first half of the 20th century a major figure in American political and economic life, advisor to half a dozen of our presidents. Just before his 84th birthday in 1954, he was asked by historian Will Durant about his philosophy of human affairs.
In reply, Baruch told the story of a man sentenced to death who obtained a reprieve by assuring the king that within a year he could teach his majesty's horse to fly, on condition that he then go free and that if he failed he would be put to death at the year's end. "Within a year," he later explained, "the king may die or change his mind, or I may die, or the horse may die; and furthermore, in a year, who knows? Maybe that horse will learn to fly!"
"My philosophy is like that man's," Baruch concluded. "I take the long view." Wisdom always does; and Christians, more than most, always can.
-- Mann
