Wisdom 2

Wisdom greets me with hair of gray and crown of golden sunflowers.

~ Lucy of Diamonds in the Sky with Lucy

Last week I posted the trailer to Wisdom, a movie, book, and exhibitions project by award-winning filmmaker and photographer Andrew Zuckerman. That post is here.

I asked readers two questions to consider after viewing the trailer: What's your definition of "wisdom"? And if you had to make an image of it, what would your photograph or painting or collage of "wisdom" look like?

Several wonderful blogposts were written on the theme, and a number of comments were left on my blog that I want to highlight, as I promised to do.

Lucy of Diamonds in the Sky with Lucy wrote a lovely meditation, "Lady Wisdom". I like that she invests wisdom with "warm heart" and "kind eyes" that dispel the darkness.

My friend Louise, in Calgary, Canada, who produces the often wondrous Recover Your Joy, which I read every morning, was inspired to write  "More Is Simply More". Thank you again, Louise, for your wise words. They linger.

Ann, the first woman to go on the air at Denver radio station KTLK and who is now a public relations consultant, defined the word to mean "having enough life experience to know what NOT to do." So many of us would benefit from such wisdom.

Another reader, a lay minister who is also named Ann, wrote, "Wisdom is sharing God's perspective of a person or situation, of Himself or myself." She added, "If I capture wisdom in a picture, it is simply the human face of light, peace, and humility." That human face is the face Lucy created for her meditation. It's the face of God looking back at Himself through us.

Janet left a visual impression: "When I think of wisdom, I think of a tree — for a few reasons — roots as deep and wide as the branches above that support it, and help it be flexible no matter what life throws its way. Trees also go through life with a balanced rhythm, which includes a regular season of rest."

And what does the word mean to me? To answer, I draw on the words of Irish poet and philospher John O'Donohue. Wisdom means knowing how to use that "inner eye / [to] See through the surfaces / And glean the real presence / Of everything that meets you. . . ."