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I had a conversation the other night about the passing of Nelson Mandela.
The gentleman I was speaking with kept referring to this great leader as being “smart” and politically savvy. He went on to suggest that Mandela “knew how to manipulate people” in a way that “good leaders can”.
I had an immediate reaction to the use of the word “smart”. Not because I don’t think Nelson Mandela was a very smart man, but because it’s way too simple of a word to describe the magnitude of what he contributed.
Nelson Mandela was not only smart; he was wise.
Wisdom and intelligence are certainly intertwined, but they’re also quite distinct. Intelligence is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge, while wisdom is a quality of having experience, knowledge and good judgment.
Intelligence is about ability, while wisdom is a quality.
Wisdom is earned not achieved, and it comes from experience not the mind.
Nelson Mandela is a perfect example of this. He learned from hardship, connected to humanity from his heart, and led from a place of deep consciousness and experience. His greatest contributions did not come from a high IQ, they stemmed from his willingness to let go of righteousness for the greater good of humanity.
What we saw in Nelson Mandela was the good we all want to see in ourselves and each other.
As a society we are drawn to wisdom and the people who share it because it inspires and instills hope. In dark times wisdom can offer a beam of light by providing a perspective that would have otherwise remained unknown.
Wisdom connects us through shared experience where we feel less alone and alienated from each other and ourselves.
The most important thing to remember about wisdom (and how to garner some) is that it cannot come from experience alone. We all have experiences every day, but unless we reflect on them, make sense of them, and grow from those experiences, we won’t be able to generate the wisdom available.
Wisdom is digested experience.
Wisdom is a recipe where you take whatever it is that you have experienced, mix it up with what you already know, and and then bake it until it’s ready to serve.
As you continue to close out this year, take a moment to reflect on these three quotes by Nelson Mandela and apply them to your own life.
“People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.”
