G. Murphy Donovan penned a very thoughtful and thought-provoking essay, “Whence Wisdom?”, at the New English Review, prodded by a young man’s question at a dinner with friends:
“I had dinner the other day with a family that was about to launch their son towards college. As the evening drew to a close, their first born asked me if I had any words of wisdom about school to share as he left home for the first time.
Wisdom, thought I? Now there’s an asset in short supply today, if not words, then surely the quality of wisdom. I believe I coughed up a few clichés, something about maturity being a journey “from me to thee.”
The written word is often the corrected and amended version of the spoken. A few days later, I sent the aspiring scholar what follows below, a personal appraisal of schools, education, and the pursuit of wisdom.”
He ventured way beyond a few clichés, offering up some cold slab home truths, while cracking quite a few eggheads’ flighty theories and pieities.
libertybelle diaries 