A Wise Tale by Josh
Joshof Chester's entry into Varsity Tutor's July 2016 scholarship contest
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A Wise Tale by Josh - July 2016 Scholarship Essay
My twelfth grade A.P. literature teacher was renowned for being a well-read man who could teach any subject under the sun. He used to lecture on various disciplines at a university, until he sought new pupils at, of all places, high schools.
On the first day of class, he instructed us to compile a list of words that we wished to be remembered by, a sort of do-it-yourself eulogy comprised of only five adjectives. And that which we were most hopeful of being remembered for, we would share aloud with the whole class. Jokingly, when my time came I said “hygienic,” which generated some laughter from my compeers, but nothing short of a pensive gaze from my teacher. He affirmed my descriptor with a simple nod, and wrote it among every other word into four distinct columns on the board. Every column, except the fourth, contained an alphabet soup of adjectives, with the first column overflowing from a jumble of words. The fourth housed but a single word, of which only appeared after a meek boy squeaked: wise.
When all was said and done, confusion surfaced over the significance of the word wise. Why words such as “educated” or “intelligent” were not included in column four was beyond most of us, especially since there seemed to be very little difference between the words’ connotations. After some open inquiries were made by my classmates, adding on to the confusion, my teacher revealed the meaning behind his clever categorization.
The first column, he explained, contained only comparative adjectives, or adjectives that relied on outside observations based on shallow criteria. From this section, words passed judgement on others solely on subjective evaluations, such as “beautiful,” which required that another be “ugly,” or that one was “less beautiful” than the beheld.
The other two were focused on what an individual could change in a day; either by their appearance (i.e. “hygienic”) or beliefs, but the final column transcended all other limitations.
To be wise was not something that could be compared like an outwards appearance, for wisdom itself was intrinsic; nor was it a false air that could be worn or an expression that could be immediately made. Wisdom was knowledge that derived from experience.
Yet not all experiences stand the test of time. Just as a structure may become unsound and crumble beneath its own weight, so too can many cultures, traditions, and experiences. Magnificence lost to time, the Colossus of Rhodes, my teacher said, was a world wonder that he always yearned to witness. Unfortunately, time took that possibility away.
But buried in the decrepit records of long gone men lies the accounts the experience of the Colossus while it still stood, and thus, the wisdom that came with it. It is from those written accounts my teacher was able to envision the Colossus in all of its glory through the eyes of the writers.
Laced between the letters of ancient tomes and modern texts breathes the wisdom of thousands of people, carrying on a conversation between thousands of generations. The breath of old ideas can bore nuanced innovations, better inventions, and wise people. As experience is earned from a life well-lived, so too is its knowledge gained from literature; the ideas that transpire the ages through the forms of inscribed symbols and inked blotches. And time cannot take away one’s wisdom once it is attained. While my teacher concluded his lecture on the importance of the written word, I marveled at the lesson’s sublime purpose behind his presentation.
To glean at least a morsel’s worth of the wisdom that this world has to offer in its books and human brains would still fill to the brim an entire libraries’ size of information. No doubt exists in my mind that he taught me the most important lesson I have learned to date, for he has molded how I view every other lesson that life teaches me. No longer do I go to school for a degree or an education, but rather to become wise so that I too can pass on the human experience for future generations to come.