I struggle with this question. As I have gotten older, I definitely feel like I am wiser. That I don’t rush as much or try to do too many things at once. To find that quick solutions rarely work and that what you see is never quite what is.
Attaining wisdom carries with it a connotation of “having figured things out”. That at a deeper level, more things are clearer and make better sense. That our choices should be more effective and with it brings about a life more fulfilled.
But can wisdom fail us? In some ways, I must say yes it can.
There is a danger in thinking you have wisdom that can lead you to become lazy. To think that you have figured things out when, in truth, there are things happening that are different than any of our previous experience. That we miss the current pattern of things by over laying and forcing an old outdated pattern on a situation that might lead us to a wrong conclusion.
This laziness begins to shut down your life when your wisdom should be giving you the energy to learn more, do more, and explore more. To continue with the practice of discovering new things, new ways, and new ideas.
Thinking that we are wise, we can lose our patience with those that we feel don’t understand or are too naive. So instead of being patient and helpful we either dismiss them from our lives or become too impatient with trying to understand who they are.
Wisdom fails us when our egos want to carry its medal for others to see. In doing so there is a hardening of perspective that traps a person and starves all of the relationships around them.
For to be human, is to always remember that wisdom continually develops and is never fully attained. That it may change forms or structure as the world around us expands and evolves.
Wisdom that adapts and evolves, teaches and shares is the only form of wisdom that cannot fail us but will take a lifetime to fully achieve.