Book of Ironwolf: You will benefit more from applying the wisdom you already know than you will from learning more wisdom.
In 2002 I put the finishing touches on one revision of The Book of Ironwolf— my personal compendium of wisdom. In the preface I wrote:
…as almost any wise statement (however short) can become the subject of a full-length book, I also opt for brevity, avoiding long-winded expositions of why I think each point has value.
While I still believe brevity is a good thing, several years have now past and the time has come, I believe, to review the book for my own benefit and perhaps revise it again in the process. And, since we’re now in the Age of the Blog, what better way to review than to comment on my own writing? So this entry begins a series of commentaries on the Book of Ironwolf. I intend to keep the commentaries to short, personal reflections on the meaning and importance of the book’s entries. I am interested in your comments as well.
Incidentally, the numbers used on the book’s web page are only valid for the current version of the book, and will change as the result of any updates.
Without further ado…
When I first wrote the Book of Ironwolf, I was thinking deeply about the value of wisdom and doing a lot of reading on the subject. It occurred to me that the world would be a lot nicer place if people simply “practiced what they preached,” and that pretty much everything needed for human happiness was already known and much-discussed, at least insomuch as most people already have a great deal of wisdom and “common sense” under their belt. Unfortunately they often forget about it, or worse, deliberately choose to ignore it. I realized that all the studying I had done could easily be for naught if I didn’t apply at least the most important principles I had learned. Studying wisdom for its own sake ends up being a foolish waste of time if one doesn’t go out and live life wisely. I decided that it’s not even a matter a “practice what you preach,” but simply “apply what you know.” It struck me that the resulting statement is true “meta-wisdom,” i.e., wisdom about wisdom itself, and thus this item earned its opening spot as a caution to anyone who thinks they will gain benefit simply by reading the rest of the book.
Where is the wise one?
Where is the sage?
Who has the words of beauty?
Who will awaken us from sleep?
Who will perform their duty?—Bobby McFerrin, Soma So De La De Sase
