May I offer this, Jane T, in response, by the (only just now) late and magnificent Toni Morrison?

“We move from data to information to knowledge to wisdom. And separating one from the other… knowing the limitations and the danger of exercising one without the others, while respecting each category of intelligence, is generally what serious education is about.”

I love this for how it gets in our face about what we believe about data, which we have too much of. Then we curate data to get information, which is bit more wieldy but not much. In and of itself it’s no more useful than data. Just less of it and perhaps slightly more organized.

Then perhaps we can organize and curate information to knowledge, which too many believe to be the be all end all, when it’s not. Knowledge in an of itself is useless, unless we have some road rash, the scars and the time in place to understand how to use it.

Hence, wisdom. None of these can exist without the other. The greatest of these is wisdom. I have heard wisdom fall out of the mouth of my 37 year old social media coach, my now deceased 92- year old mentor. Not so much out of mine, but I can hope.

Age in an of itself doesn’t convey wisdom. Pain, the price we pay for our perspectives, the willingness to always be a rookie and know nothing in the face of All That Is, perhaps that’s the beginning of it.

I am four years away from the big seven-oh. I can only hope that as I continue to put down footprints, that I can both accumulate and curate something of value. Maybe I can. Right now I’m only wise enough to know I’m not very wise.