Apart from studying a book with a similar title when I was a child, called "The getting of wisdom" though personally I think my title is much more appealing, I have to say it's taken me some years to obtain much in the way of wisdom. I think that's why I'm such a voracious reader. I figure I'll pick up some useful bits of knowledge that will hopefully make me appear somewhat wiser than I am. I also like to listen to others in conversation.
It never ceases to amaze me about how wise other people are. And worryingly, how I unwise I am. Thank goodness for Amazon.com!
I went out for dinner with some mums from my son's school the other night. It's taken me three years to really get to a place where I can form relationships with them. Pregnancy, a newborn, exhaustion and lack of confidence really saw me sidelined in terms of social interaction until now. So I went out for a meal with a diverse group of gorgeous women. Now one of them is so gorgeous that she regularly graces the social pages and even more frequently, fashion spreads in magazines. She's pretty and thoughtful. I mean she bought me sparkly blue eyeliner as a Christmas present and even showed me how to apply it. The trouble is, she's lovely, inside and out. Otherwise I'd hate her. Mainly because she can wear high heel pink stilettos with ease. If I did that for even half an hour I'd be on crutches. We'll call her "The Supermodel."
So dressed in my finest wedges, and can I share some of my new found wisdom here? Wedges are amazing! I can't believed I've lived for 34 years without finding a shoe that a) made me appear taller b) didn't leave me limping the next day. Go and buy some. Now. But finish this blog post first. And then come back and tell me what you bought ;)
So we were chatting away about important things. You know. Obama's health care policy, the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. Actually we are Australian, so we weren't talking about that, but if we'd been in the USA I'm sure we would have.
Anyway, for no apparent reason I talked about the little tradition they have at my son's school where at the end of each term, the students detatch the lids of their desks and bring them home to wash them.
Last year I stood with two other mums watching this happen. One of them remarked with some disdain that she'd rather pay the school extra so her child didn't have to bring it home to wash.
At the time, I was sleep deprived, probably hungry and wrestling with one of my children so thought very little of it. But it stayed in my mind. And so I relayed this little conversation and asked what they thought.
And "The Supermodel" leaned forward and sagely said: "They've missed the point. It's about teaching the children about responsibility. It's about teaching them to take care of their possessions. The school could easily get a cleaner to wash their desks, but that would remove any sense of ownership on behalf of the children."
And that is how and why Seraphim got wisdom from the Supermodel.
Because I too, had missed the point of the exercise.
Completely.
At the time I didn't care. I wasn't going to question the washing of the desk. But equally I missed the lesson I was supposed to teach my child about cleaning the desk.
Point made.
Lesson learned.
I'm off now to practise using my sparkly blue eyeliner. Have a wonderful weekend everyone.
xxxxx