Saturday, September 14,2024. Let wisdom flow
By Matthew fox:
Why is Trump such a bad loser? Did he ever play sports?
It is sometimes said that wisdom comes with old age. Well, it comes from the young too and the Scriptures speak to that and I am glad they do. “Out of the mouth of babes, comes wisdom.” (Ps 8.2) And “Wisdom gave speech to the tongues of babes.” (Wis 10.21)
Two things I will say about wisdom and old age is this. First, experience can—no guarantee—bring some wisdom.
Experience of failure and experience of achievement. This is one sad element of a certain presidential candidate who seems so utterly ill at ease at losing. There is much to learn from losing, and learning to be a good loser as well as a good winner is a virtue.
Losing means getting up and trying some again, trying harder, evaluating, learning therefore. But is there a worse loser on the planet than Mr. Trump? What he did on January 6—and planned for weeks in advance as we now know—is an ultimate sign of a bad loser. His conspiring to take down the government that he was trying to head is hard to fathom. No other president has attempted such a thing in 248 years of the American republic.
Even harder To fathom is that 47% of the American population seem quite okay with such behavior. Sports can teach one how to lose with some grace and yet return to win another day.
As I reflect on the passing of my two older brothers, one important element of our relationship as kids was sports and they were especially generous in inviting me to play with them and their buddies even though I was 2-3 years younger and a lot smaller as a child.
But I loved playing with them and occasionally received congratulations if I caught a pass or outran an opponent, etc. I also learned to lose.
Another element of old age is this: People you love die. Not only parents and siblings, but friends. Again, loss is part of life. Letting go is a big part of life. In fact, Meister Eckhart says, “we sink eternally from letting go to letting go into the One.” It never stops, this letting go. It’s an eternal thing.
I’m not sure it ever gets easier, but it does get familiar and one can develop habits of letting go. I sometimes talk of building muscles of letting go—such muscles need flexing and developing as any other muscles do.
The wisdom involved in death of loved ones has something to do with sizing up one’s own life and learning and re-learning that life is a one-time thing, a gift not to be squelched or underestimated or taken for granted. Give it all you’ve got.
If older ones can teach that to younger ones, then wisdom is
passing from generation to generation and that is a good thing.
Let wisdom roll, from young to old and from old to young. Let there be intergenerational wisdom. Let each generation inspire the other.
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