Experiential Wisdom

Today in class we talked about wisdom literature in the Bible. There are two types: Mantic wisdom: supernatural wisdom and Experiential wisdom: wisdom that comes from experience. We focused on the second type and the books in the apocrypha and Hebrew Bible that deal with this practical type of wisdom: Proverbs and Sirach. These books talk a lot about the things in life that are common sense things like how to act at a dinner party and how to worship in the proper way. This is because of the time period in which they were written: the Diaspora. This is the time period in which the Jews were trying to answer the question of how to live their lives in a different land while still keeping their traditions.

Before I go further I want to define wisdom because it is a little bit different from the wisdom that we use today. Wisdom today (taken from dictionary.com) is the knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action. Wisdom as I will use it is the collection of knowledge that the older generations pass down to the younger generations on how to succeed in life in the form of a fable or proverb and can be about any and all aspects of life.

The knowledge I will be passing down to future generations is in the form of a story not necessarily about myself but has aspects of a night I had in Greece. Meaning this happened to me tonight. And now that we have that out of the way story time!

One night in Greece a devilishly charming man from the Seattle area on a study away trip took a walk with the rest of his trip mates up one of the hills surrounding Athens to have a good night of conversation over drinks at a cafe. After the dessert and drinks were consumed they walked down the hill back to a main road they thought they had crossed on the way to the café but didn’t recognize any of the buildings on at the intersection they were at. They remembered looking out over the city and seeing a landmark that was near their apartments and decided to walk in the direction of the landmark. Sure enough after walking several blocks they ended up at the street right by their apartments and they were able to get back without any other problems.

The experiential wisdom I am passing down to you is when you are lost in a foreign city head towards a landmark near your lodgings and you will eventually get back to where you are staying. The other part that goes with that wisdom is to pick places to stay that are near recognizable landmarks in the city.

Hope you find this valuable on your future trips! I know I will.