As a curious and studious seeker of wisdom and knowledge, I find evidence of both everywhere. Plus I’m a movieholic so it is not surprising that I find pearls of universalisms in big screen productions. One of my all-time favorite flicks is Sweet Home Alabama which has a great line that goes something like this: You can have both roots and wings . . . . I love that line. Why do we have to choose between the two? Why can’t we have both? Why can’t we have it all?
These are not just kernels to create a novel from, although that is something I am likely to do. However, learning in and of itself is useful. It adds to our confidence level, can improve the quality of our lives and our world. Who knows which one of us will assimilate a random collection of facts and come up with something new from that combination’s synergy?
A new philosophy perhaps. Ayn Rand did it with her books, novels Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, not to mention her nonfiction works about objectivism. How about a cancer cure or a new fuel supply? What about something so basic like learning to understand and communicate effectively with the opposite sex, or just our siblings and other family members or even coworkers?
We each have such a unique fingerprint—and I’m not only talking about what is under our nails, but more of a soul print. Something so vast and complex and special and whole, in and of itself, so as to not need
repeating. That describes every one of us.
For the record, when the Bible speaks of the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God and that we were fearfully and wonderfully made, I question the translation from the Hebrew that led to the usage of the word “fear” in both these instances. I find “respect” would be a far better choice. Regardless, that is my opinion and I’m off on a tangent here.
So back to my original thought: finding gems to live by or, in the case of us creative types, some topic to paint, research, study or write about whether in a textbook or a paperback novel. Can you guess where these paraphrased snippets or actual quotes came from?
- …made everything beautiful for its own time. [Note: I particularly believe that this means you and me. If we are alive in this time and era, we are beautiful as THIS is our time.]
- Sex should only be delayed by mutual agreement of the married couple and only for the purpose of prayer.
- A new husband shall take on no public responsibilities but shall instead stay home for one year to make his wife happy.
If you guessed that all three came from the Bible, you would be correct (Ecc. 3:11, I Cor. 7:5 and Deut. 24:5, respectively). I share this for two reasons. One, you never know where a good idea can come from, and can be put into praxis in your actual everyday living or in an imaginary work of art—or both. Two, I think the Bible can scare people away from it sometimes and I want to illustrate that it is full of great stories, humor, poetry and all the possible human conflicts that we depict in movies and books.
So, here we are, roundabout to the beginning of this blog. Revering the written words found in bookstores, libraries, schools, churches, homes--or resident in our minds until unleashed--as well as the works on film or DVD or Blu-ray or whatever new technology someone else is sure to invent.
Wisdom can be found anywhere . . . you just need to focus your sights on finding it. And the addition of YOU may be all that is needed to create something amazing.
