Older, dumber... but wiser?

[mschrank]

It’s kind of funny, it’s been almost two years since I graduated from university and so much has happened to me intellectually, spiritually, morally and even physically.

I used to be very much into complicated philosophical arguments when I was in college because of what I was studying (political theory). In a way, I think I’m dumber than I used to be. I just don’t easily grasp some of the more arcane arguments, the kind of stuff I used to love to get into when I was half drunk at the pub with my friends. Philosophy was kind of the be-all and end-all, the final word on just about anything.

Now I still love philosophy in a way, but it seems like I’ve gotten to a point where I think there is a place for philosophy here and there, but at the end of the day, I’m just not so sure the world is so neat and tidy anymore. The more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know, and the more I realize is out there which defies labeling and reduction- or should I say “rationalization”. It seems like the best you can do is take certain things on their own terms, for what they are. This kind of practical wisdom is different than the kind of book smarts you can get out of a 4 year education.

The endless mental ruminations of the scientists and philosophers on the nature of just about everything seems more and more amusing. The constant attempts to reduce everything down to this or that, to break reality down into bite size pieces kind of brings to mind the words of God to Job on the behemoth and leviathan…

 

[joeybaggz]

“This kind of practical wisdom is different than the kind of book smarts you can get out of a 4 year education.”

Welcome to the real world; now you’re beginning to understand…

I had the exact same thoughts and feelings over thirty five years ago when I left the cocoon of the campus.

Then I heard an interesting thing in a sermon. A priest was talking about man’s quest for God, and he ended his sermon by saying, “Remember, wisdom is a gift of the holy spirit, intelligence isn’t” Wisdom, the inner grace to seek union with God…intelligence, an attribute of man enabling him to seek himself and his ability to live in society.

Two things you might think about. Thomas Aquinas, often recognized as the greatest mind in Catholic scholarship wrote the Summae. He set out to explain God and God’s relationship to man. One day, he realized as he stared into an intellectual abyss that no man can cross, that the finite man can only glimpse, not grasp, the infinite … and he stopped writing.

The second though is Jesus’ words. Unless you shall become as one of these little ones, you will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Childlike faith and acceptance.

mshrank, like you I loved the philosophical chess matches, but what I came to realize is that there is a dimension of the human heart and soul that cannot be fully understood. And it is in that dimension that God lives.

As my friend Mr. Spock might say, “Live long and prosper” (oh, and don’t sweat the small stuff )

 

[Sideline]

I used to be very much into complicated philosophical arguments when I was in college because of what I was studying (political theory). In a way, I think I’m dumber than I used to be. I just don’t easily grasp some of the more arcane arguments, the kind of stuff I used to love to get into when I was half drunk at the pub with my friends. Philosophy was kind of the be-all and end-all, the final word on just about anything.

I’ve read through several of your posts, and I doubt you are dumber. I don’t know what you were like when you were in college, but sudden loss of intelligence is fairly rare. I thought I was going through the same thing after I graduated, but now I realize that it wasn’t that I was less intelligent. It was that I had lost interest, and I had gained perspective.

When I was younger, I would grasp onto new ideas with a vengence. I wanted to know it all, and be as knowlegeable as possible. Of course, I wouldn’t stop there. I would display my mental prowess to others until someone had a counter argument that would blow my arguments out of the water. I’d either change my mind go scrambling for another argument to counter the counter. I was convinced I would eventually find a position that was unassailable, but it never happened.

The endless mental ruminations of the scientists and philosophers on the nature of just about everything seems more and more amusing. The constant attempts to reduce everything down to this or that, to break reality down into bite size pieces kind of brings to mind the words of God to Job on the behemoth and leviathan…

A little while ago I read and article about measuring the coastline of Britain. They pointed out how difficult it is to categorize anything. Do you measure at hightide or low tide? Do you count outcroppings? How find a measuring tools do you use?

You can get wildly different figures depending on what and how you measure. And that realization made me a little happier. It wasn’t that I didn’t get it, it was that no one did.

 

[puzzleannie]

I am here to testify the older I get the dumber I get (just ask my kids), but for someone who used to carry a book-bag labeled “chronic student” because I spent so many years in college, I am now unable to follow a complicated academic argument, and have pretty much lost any desire to get into a prolonged philosophical discussion. I certainly cannot sit through a 2-hour evening class and stay awake, and I pity my poor teens and adults in our evening RE programs who have to try. It is certainly true that the simplest spiritual book is now most attractive, I don’t mean the “Chicken Soup” type or pop religion, but the classics. I really think the Dark Night is all I will need for a long time.

I have to still do a lot of reading for my job, but the learning time is over, and I only have a few years left to be doing so I don’t want to waste them. When the doing years are over and the knees and other body parts finally give out, I will go into the prayer and contemplation years, for which I yearn. My books will go to the parish library and I will keep my bible (large type edition), rosary, and poetry of Juan de la Cruz by my chair and be content.