ALONG THE ROAD TO
WISDOM
BY JOHN LEWIS
Y
ou enter a tent by way of a beaded
doorway as incense rises around you.
Ancient artifacts, relics, and runes lay
scattered about in no apparent order. As
your eyes grow slowly accustomed to the
low light and haze, you notice countless
books laying all around. Many are left
opened to specific pages waiting to be
picked up and read again. In some, the
print is fading. All are worn with time and
use. A lifetime of study, meditation, and
research is represented in the scene before
you. You have entered the den of a sage.
In all the movies and storybooks, wise men
and women are eccentric, older than the
foundations of the earth, and full of pithy
tokens of wisdom they communicate slowly
and sparingly. They read a lot, go on long
mysterious journeys, and often smoke a
pipe. When they do communicate wisdom,
it is often in riddles or enigmatic expressions
few understand. Wisdom is elusive, hard to
grasp and usually involves some form of
quest or journey to obtain.
In the real world, in this very real life we are
all living, what is wisdom and how do we
get it? Most dictionaries define wisdom as
knowledge gained through experience. As
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