Monday, June 18, 2007

What even...


...does this even mean?!?!

Moma, Jeanne, and I went shopping this afternoon and on the way home, sitting in traffic on Polk Street, we stumbled across this little jewel of a saying.

"Wisdom is not attained by years but by ability"

Wisdom is attained by how able you are?
Your ability is how able you are to do something.
Is it saying your ability to learn.
Now I'm confused.
Maybe wisdom is beyond my abilities.

Anyway,
This started a long discussion and we decided quickly that this quote was very insulting to disabled people. Are they forever banished from being wise because their lack of ability?
Interesting concept... seems wrong.

We would LOVE to hear your interpretations...

12 comments:

ManUtd17 said...

You don't get wise simply by living a long time. You get wise by doing . . . and sometimes from failing. Ability is the power or capacity to act or do, but it is not limited to being able to act physically. Thus, those who may be physically disabled are not left off the wisdom journey. Their mental abilities don't prevent them from attaining wisdom.

That was way too literal a response to your question and not the least bit humorous, but I tend to be a linear thinker. Sue me.

carolineb said...

That saying is ridonculous. Wisdom is to ability as wise is to able. Ability is a measure of capacity for action. It makes no sense. Replace ability with action and I get it.

ManUtd17 said...

Sounds like a nice mission for CB and JL to go "fix" the sign.

carolineb said...

It's like saying height is attained through a ruler. I thought of that one in the middle of the night as I'm just too old to drink strong regular coffee at 10pm and still achieve unconsciousness.

ManUtd17 said...

I'm not sure we can "attain" wisdom anyway. We can learn stuff and be "smarter" as measured on Jeopardy but no amount of successful Daily Doubles make us wizer.

brad said...

Caroline's "ridonculous" comment makes me laugh. The rapper, Ludacris, was hosting SNL this past season and he introduced him self to another "rapper". He said, "My name is Ludacris. My real name is Chris and it came from that. What's your name?" The other guy said, "Rickdickulous." Hilarious.

Jennie B said...

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

But the attaining of wisdom is the ability to ignore the years, and your abilities and just grow wiser by going to Marietta Middle School.

Ha ha ha ha ha. I made myself laugh.

Bekah said...

Dang it! If wisdom is directly related to ability I'm screwed. And this whole time I was living life I thought the YEARS were supposed to be doing all the work and now I realize (Thanks to MMS) I was supposed to be being able to get wise. Dang it again!

AmyFritch said...

This whole blog is just making me laugh.

Katie B said...

Job 12:12

greenkiddo said...

We've been discussing this quote around our house too! Check out my husband's blog for further discussion of this (whitlockave.com).
Stephanie
(friend of Laura k's)

thebellyadmin said...

this is too funny, we blogged it too like my wife mentioned on www.whitlockavenue.com

You can read our post here

enjoy! -Matthew