The answer is Montenegro or Bobby Riggs or Gloria Graham. These days lunch could not be complete without looking up some piece of trivia on our smart phone. It leaves no question unanswered except, perhaps, for the meaning of life, what are we doing here and what just went wrong with our country. If we can’t deal with the overwhelming questions at least we placate our brains with the small stuff.
As was recently pointed out by Ken Jennings, the M.C. of the
quiz show Jeopardy, facts are more than trivia. In fact, trivia is more than
trivial. The word goes back seven centuries when it referred to three essentials
of a liberal arts education, rhetoric, logic and grammar. A massive dose of each is
achingly needed in our citadels of power.
In this age of mendacity, conspiracy and gullibility, facts
have been relegated to versions of truth on one channel, twisted on another and
ignored by most. Objective truth went out with landlines and dictionaries. However a lie does not become true by repetition.
I doubt if any of our ancestors had as much knowledge crammed into their grey matter as we do. Our heads are stuffed with gigabytes (whatever that means) of facts. Too bad knowledge doesn’t translate into wisdom.
Was it Plato or Yogi Berra who said, knowledge is knowing that
tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in fruit salad. Actually, it
was Miles Kington who deserves attribution. He also said that a pessimist sees
a glass as half empty. An optimist is the guy who drinks what’s there’s and
orders another. I know all this because I just looked it up…but at least I
waited till I came home.
The fact of the matter is that while, botanically speaking, tomatoes are seeded plants and therefore fruits, the Supreme Court, in 1893, ruled that they shall be designated as a vegetable and taxed accordingly as a veggie import.
Knowledge has a shelf life. Wisdom is more like what we know but cannot quite articulate. Wisdom is likely to be an interrogation. Why and how rather than who or when. Possibly what happened when we didn’t notice. The ineffable. An instance of congruence in the discord. A pattern seen from a distant perch.
Knowledge has its place. It is one step ahead of info, data
and nomenclature. If they opened me up, out would come pouring a compendium of
pharmaceutical terms, a dictionary of words and an encyclopedia of political
events, a smattering of history & geography, a gaggle of ballplayers,
movies, actors, big-band leaders and a libretto or two from Gilbert and
Sullivan. The stuff that might get me on Jeopardy.
It may be that wisdom comes in two sizes. The great wisdom said to be found at the foot of the Himalayas or the fleeting variety at the bottom of your oatmeal bowl. When the Zen novice arrives at the monastery seeking answers he is told to wash his bowl. The floating world is that which eludes Google over lunch but may be accessible to the dishwasher in his reverie.
In simplicity and silence, one learns to listen for the wisdom which lies within, sort of like knowing what it takes not to add tomato (or ketchup) to the fruit salad.
Just a couple of decades ago we might have gathered for lunch and have a conversation over Chinese chicken salad without needing to know what country in Europe has the second tallest men (Montenegro). We might have left the table just wondering. Where has all the wonder gone?
