I always thought wisdom came with intelligence, till a few days ago, when I met a friend’s mother. She came across as a very sweet lady with an incredibly impressive personality. She is a lawyer by profession (now non-practicing), so obviously, never short of words. They live near my place so she offered me a ride back home, which I willingly accepted. My friend and I were making a lot of noise inside the car with our discussions and arguments over anything and everything that existed on the face of this earth! In that process, I said something very foolish. When my friend successfully convinced me that I was wrong, I gave a giggle and corrected myself.
After some time his mom said to me, “When I see you, I mourn my youth.” I couldn’t make anything out of it and couldn’t even think of anything to give as a reply so I just smiled. She again said, “honestly…”- inviting me to comment on it. So I nervously said, “If you don’t have anything else to mourn, then you are a fortunate lady.” And smiled again so that she doesn’t mistake it for my arrogance. She gave it a thought and then gave a very pleased sigh. Then she said, “What else is there to mourn but the blunders one is now incapable of making?”
That one sentence had so much wisdom in it that for some time it forced each one of us deep into our thoughts and none of us could manage to utter anything. That one sentence taught me that there are some things that only age can teach us. They can’t be learned from any book, taught through any number of lectures or trained by any scholar. Its something that will come only with our gray hair. It has taught me that getting two of my wisdom teeth out doesn’t make me any wiser!
Maybe that’s why there are two different words in English for ‘wisdom’ and ‘intelligence’.
Now I understand that they are miles apart.