It has been said that King Solomon was one of the wisest men recorded in history. His decisions were acclaimed to be just and fair and as a result, his subjects revered him.

What is the true meaning of wisdom? My dictionary states that wisdom is "Understanding of what is true, right, or lasting. Common sense; sagacity; good judgment." Age doesn't necessarily bring wisdom. Sometimes age comes alone. I have met young people with wisdom and older people who had none. Many individuals confuse knowledge with wisdom, but knowledge, knows a fact while wisdom, knows what to do with the fact. Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. Knowledge can be memorized. Wisdom must think things through. Another shorter definition might be that wisdom is nothing more than common sense refined by learning and experience.

Half of wisdom is being silent when you have nothing to say. That may be true, but if a person is silent too much then they can be thought to be lacking in wisdom, however, there are times when it is prudent to conceal wisdom. For instance the fellow that knows more than his boss would be wise to conceal it.

To illustrate that age has little bearing on wisdom the following composition of a six-year old girl was submitted to her teacher. The subject matter was People. "People are composed of boys and girls, also men and women. Boys are no good until they grow up and get married. Men who don't get married are no good either. Girls are young women who will be ladies when they graduate. Boys are an awful bother; they want everything they see except soap. If I had my way the boys in the world would be girls, and the other half dolls. My ma is a woman and my pa is a man. A woman is a grown up girl with children. My pa is such a nice man I guess he must have been a girl when he was a little boy." Some might say that this little six-year-old was wise beyond her years and others might label her a born feminist. At the risk of incurring the wrath of the female readers I adjudge her to be wise beyond her years. How about you John Battershell in Colorado? By way of explanation John and I are old school mates and we correspond with one another. He shares some columns with me that are in his daily paper and most of them are quite interesting.

It appears that today's Musing is another one of those more philosophical type articles that I crank out now and then, but it does have some truths in it. In closing I offer the following pearls of wisdom; A wise man gives other people's opinions as much weight as he does his own. A wise man will desire no more than he can get honestly, use wisely, and leave cheerfully. Wisdom is knowing when to speak your mind and when to mind your speech. Last, but not least, not all the teeth put into our laws these days are wisdom teeth.

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