Get Wisdom - but what is it?

Wisdom, it seems to me, is applied knowledge, skillful living. It is embracing truth as a lifestyle not just intellectually. The problem is in the sorting out of the incredible supply of information we receive in order to get at truth, and in particular, unchanging truth. Many of the "truths" I learned in school seem not to be truths at all. I am not suggesting anyone was dishonest in my education, just that they were wrong about how things work. Primarily that has to do with advances in research but it could be that we just have to admit that we can't know everything with the degree of certainty we believe we can. There are certain propositions we state as categorical truths today that we find later to be not as clear as we thought at the time.

Wisdom is in the sorting out of information to get at truth and then living by the truth. In all that process belief is involved. In today's world. global warming requires belief when conflicting science is presented, belief is required that the economy isn't going into the tank, belief is required that the war in Iraq was based on legitimate intelligence reports, and all of these then lead to a commitment in life to the truth that falls out of those belief systems.

Sometimes it seems that faith is slammed because it is based on that which is not seen and therefore thought to be delusional, but all of us have faith in something whether we can name it or not. We believe that concepts like justice and truth exist at all and that requires faith that either of those are part of the universe. Why should there be justice or fairness? Wisdom, to me, is the recognition that since there is a universal will to justice and truth it must exist somewhere and then seeking after the author of it all. Could random mutations in any way lead to the justice we believe in? Is survival of the fittest a justice concept we are committed to or is doing unto the least of these the concept that captures our hearts and lives. Survival of the fittest is a power concept not a servant one.

Wisdom then is what GK Chesterton said, "Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid."