If life were a role-playing game, I would want first the Sword of Knowledge, to cut my path through the forest of opportunities that
springs up wherever I place a foot in my journey. Uncountable decisions, small
and large, define our travel through a lifetime. How do we choose? Why do we choose what we do? Where does each
decision take us? What do we learn?
How great would it be to have a magic sword with us, its
sharp edge honed by experience and its heft assured by wisdom, to cut away the
false and reveal the shining path.
We do, of course, except it is not magic and it is not
perfect. We hammer it daily with new knowledge, new insight, and we hope it
helps us define our futures, acts as the magic we wish for, shines as our blade
of truth. When we are strong and confident it flashes like lightening, blinding
in the sun of our certainly. But when we have lost our way, when forests old or
new tower and intimidate, when the wrong cut might take us only further into
the woods, we are unsure and it becomes heavy and dangerous. The magic in the
sword comes from our ability to trust it.
And so, as if I were indeed in a game, I try to collect the
skills that will hone my sword to suit, shape it to fit my hand, teach it to
fight my particular battles. Since gaining knowledge that leads to wisdom requires
all perspectives, like touching the proverbial elephant, I spend a lot of energy
trying to diversify and I gather up as many different kinds of equipment as the
game offers. For example:
Perception, using your physical senses, and apperception,
using your instincts, must both be employed: a map.
Communication through shared experience, language, facial
mobility, and touch will help you vet your insights against the knowledge of
others: a lantern.
Attention to your own thoughts will give you time to analyze
and deconstruct, intellectual skills that help gain perspective on your
experience: a shield.
All these and more are the coins you can pick up and carry
near your heart to buy that magic sword, to purchase your own destiny, and to wield your very own Sword of Knowledge
with confidence.
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