Looking for wisdom

By Jeff Long

Most of us find wisdom in unexpected places. Some years ago, an experienced pastor, in an attempt to console my wounded spirit, offered up this gem: "Jeff, some people just aren't going to like you. And no matter what you do, that won't change." I've taken comfort in those words on numerous occasions.

My late maternal grandmother, seeing my adolescent nervousness in preparing to speak in public for the first time, said, "Jeff, you get on up there and look out at those people. Say to yourself, 'If you can do it any better than I can, come on up here and give it a try.'" In her twilight years, her grandson thanked her for that insight, but by then Grandma had forgotten she'd said it. But she had.

We can find wisdom not only in conversation, but also in important literature. Edwin Friedman (1932-1996), in his seminal work "Generation to Generation," talked about the enduring quality found in families. The family bond, the eminent rabbi and therapist opined, is "infinitely elastic."

It may be stretched beyond all recognition, but that bond never snaps. This columnist has witnessed this truth over and over again in encounters with other human beings.

The late historian Will Durant (1885-1981) wrote about what religion brings to humanity -- especially important to remember in a time in which, at least in America, the fastest growing faith is nothing at all: "Religion is the last subject that the intellect begins to understand. In our youth, we may have resented, with proud superiority, its cherished incredibilities; in our less confident years, we marvel at its prosperous survival in a secular and scientific age, its patient resurrections after whatever deadly blows by Epicurus, or Lucretius, or Lucian, or Machiavelli, or Hume or Voltaire. What are the secrets of this resilience?"

Durant goes on to offer his take on the resilience of religion, regardless of the brand name, be it Christianity, Islam, Judaism or one of the non-Abrahamic faiths:

"We covet survival, and find it hard to conceive that nature should so laboriously produce man, mind and devotion only to snuff them out in the maturity of their development. Science gives man ever greater powers but ever less significance; it improves his tools and neglects his purposes; it is silent on ultimate origins, values and aims; it gives life and history no meaning or worth that is not canceled by death or omnivorous time. So men prefer the assurance of dogma to the diffidence of reason; weary of perplexed thought and uncertain judgment, they welcome the guidance of an authoritative church, the catharsis of the confessional, the stability of a long-established creed."

From the library of literary genres that comprise the Old and New Testaments, we find this wise pearl framed as queries, attributed to Jesus of Nazareth, in a section concerned with enemies:

"If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return" (Luke 6:32-34).

Wisdom is all around us. Be alert for it. It may come in unexpected ways. And it will enrich your life.