PART FIVE: Practical wisdom
‘Thought.’ D.H. Lawrence wrote, ‘is a man in his wholeness wholly attending.’ In other words, it is a holistic concept. It is the whole person who thinks and decides, faces problems and comes to terms with reality.
And as wholes we grow like trees throughout our lifetime. Our body, of course, changes and shows its age. Our leaves go brown at the edges and our branches splinter. But our mind can go on from strength to strength, and in some cases it bears that most valuable human fruit of all – practical wisdom.
Not that practical wisdom is the prerogative of age. As the proverb reminds us: There is no fool like an old fool. But experience of life is a key ingredient in practical wisdom, and that tends to come only over ...
