More Knowledge and Wisdom....please

I hope this is not to heavy for Christmas Eve.

We are definitely in the information age. There is more information available to us than ever before in human history. Here's an example. Last night, I was watching "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby. The movie was filmed in 1954. Just out of curiosity, I wanted to know Bing's age at the time the movie was filmed. I opened the laptop, launched Google, and typed in "Bing Crosby". There it was: Bing Crosby, born May 3r, 1903. You do the math.

Knowing Bing Crosby's age at the time he filmed is a great example of information. My Dad used to have a saying when he would have the answer to some obscure question. He would say, "That's just another tidbit from Field's vast repertoire of useless and inane knowledge". It's interesting that he characterized the type of knowledge as useless and inane. In other words, it's information that serves little purpose in decision making. It just takes up space somewhere in our memory and he only pulled out for entertainment purposes. He also knew the four letter word that starts with "T" and means mountain lake.

In today's world, we have taken the next step away from knowledge, wisdom and understanding. In the example above, Dad kept the information in his head. Don't get me wrong. There was a lot of stuff in that head. However, in today's generation, information is accessed, it isn't necessarily memorized or understood. I see this as a dangerous step but it's one that we are forced to take as the volume of information continues to expand at an exponential rate. It also seems that our culture has a growing appetite for information.

Knowledge on the other hand is a powerful tool used to make decisions. It changes lives and history. The source of knowledge is found in truth(now truth is a touchy subject, "What is truth? and that is way to heavy for Christmas Eve). The pursuit of knowledge should be a lifestyle. In many ways, it's going to become increasingly difficult to maintain this lifestyle as we march forward in this age. Going forward, much energy will be spent in the process of parsing information from knowledge well before learning can occur, and unfortunately long before wisdom can be gained.

That's the goal, knowledge and the pursuit of wisdom for effective decision making. Good luck! Don't stop pressing for more. I guarantee that your time here will be over long before your brain reaches full capacity.

To be called "Wise beyond your years", this is a badge worth wearing.

Merry Christmas!