Wisdom: Is It Safe?

We acquire wisdom as we age but rarely share it until it is too late.  Wisdom is often a private matter as in “I don’t want you to know what I don’t know.” If you Google “wisdom” or “meaning of life,” you’ll find philosophical sites that employ faith and common sense in making long arguments about how we should live. “Heaviosity” if I may quote Woody Allen in Annie Hall. Is it safe to quote Woody these days?

Last year I painted a watercolor entitled, “Is It Safe?”  A man is peering over the edge of his life, unsure of what’s ahead while a giant tongue hangs over him like the sun in our universe. The tongue is the nonstop BS in life that renders us hopeless, or euphoric, depending on how much coffee we’ve had.

“Is it safe?” I ask myself this question, in various forms, all the time. Each of us makes decisions every day that have the element of safety in them. At a crossroads, I wait until it is safe to drive or walk. I assume the food I eat won’t be poisonous. And that hooded guy standing in the shadows—yeah, maybe it would be better to cross over to the other side of the street. Consequently many of the things I do every day are intended to keep me safe, and since they have worked this long, I no longer think about them.  Perhaps, I should. Perhaps, one can be too safe. Or, perhaps, this is wisdom.

Google “Is it Safe?” and you’ll get the 1976 movie “Marathon Man.” Such is internet wisdom.