Week 13: Nine Virtues: Wisdom

Ok, essay is finally complete. I'm really out of practice at writing essays on abstract ideas. Probably because I've not had to do it in... uh... well, at least 10 years.

Initial draft is below. This needs a bunch of revision, but I have a bye week coming up the second week of June, so I'm going to sit down and polish up a bunch of essays that week. This was far harder than it should have been to write. Probably because I just kept procrastinating.

“Wisdom: Good judgment, the ability to perceive people and situations correctly, deliberate about and decide on the correct response.” ADF Dedicant Manual

“The quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight.” Dictionary.com

Wisdom comes from the interplay between good judgement and moral action. Without both parts, wisdom becomes ignorance or rash action.

Good judgement can arise from both experience or lessons learned from others. Many things can be learned through experience (the stove is hot!), however, in some cases, the experience or knowledge sought can be obtained from others, through books or by simply asking (the consequences of war). The ability of humans to learn and apply knowledge not only from their own past but also the past experience of others can be argued to be one of the markers that sets humans apart.

Moral action is also a key component. Having the knowledge to advise on a situation but failing to act in accordance with that knowledge is a profoundly unethical act. There may be times where the ethical course of action is inaction, however, inaction is still an action. Moral action is an action that appropriately responds to a situation while aiming to reduce harm and magnify kindness.

Wisdom is intricately linked to both courage and vision. Vision is needed to foresee the consequences of an action and to take additional steps to lessen harm. It is sometimes impossible to avoid all harm, however, the virtuous harms the least and assists the most. Performing the wise, moral thing sometimes requires courage. What is right and what is easy are rarely the same action.

So yeah, obviously needs work, but once I have a draft, it gets a lot easier to manage.

Weeks 13-16 Gah. I'm so far behind!

Well, somehow, I went from being about half a week behind to being 4 weeks behind. Not sure how that happened, but it means I have a lot of catch up work to do this week.

Week 13: finish wisdom exercises and write essay-- DONE
week 14: altar changes and write up-- DONE
week 15: piety exercises and essay-- DONE
week 16: 3rd high holy day essay

So yeah. Lots of stuff to get to. And it's a busy week on top of all that: in addition to my normal social activities (Tuesday), the Grove is volunteering at the local soup kitchen on Thursday, we have ritual on Friday, and Earth Day and Druid Moon on Sunday. And somewhere in there, I need to watch my shows and a movie I've borrowed from a friend, bake things for ritual and druid moon, and sleep. I love being busy. It's great.

So yeah, expect updates this week. lots and lots of updates.

Week 13: Nine Virtues: Wisdom

Related to Requirement: #1 – Nine Virtues
Required Reading:

• Our Own Druidry, p. 15 (Virtue, Piety and Study); 
• Our Own Druidry, 85-90 (Lore and Essays) 

Suggested Reading:

• A Virtuous Life Nine Virtues study guide

But first, recap of last week since I didn't get anything up.

Some how I got ahead of the group, so I had a bye week last week. I used the time to create a set of rune staves and to spend lots of time outside (to the dismay of my sunburnt ears and nose). I also finally got the Beltane ritual written.

I'm really happy with how the rune staves turned out, even if this is just meant to be a temporary set until I can get better wood working skills. Also, I probably shouldn't have started them just before lunch as I was starving by the end since it took a good 2 hours. I'm not sure how true they read, but since I'm really bad at interpretation anyway, I think it'll probably be ok. I have switched from iPod divination to drawing a rune instead during my devotional. Its practice and that is needed.

Mom requested a new retaining wall and a trip to the zoo for her birthday. So I spent most of Friday and Saturday outside, working and walking. Walnuts hurt to have jammed into your knees and penguins and polar bears are pretty cool (pun not intended). Sunday was spent inside helping Grandma around the house, which was not really how I wanted to spend it... but it needed to be done and I was the one available. And it wasn't too bad this time: just moving heavy stuff she can't manage and some computer stuff.

Writing the ritual was more of a thing than I was expecting it to be. I'm not sure if I was just blocked or if I'm a horrible litergist. Or both. At any rate, after combing through... several... books, every non-shitty website I could find, and a couple shitty websites that at least weren't racist, I finally got enough information to write this. I really need to find reliable sources of information. I have more research and information on exactly how the pleating was done on viking apron dresses than I have on what the appropriate deities are for different holidays. I'm going to publish at least the parts of it that I wrote after Beltane so other folks have a bit of an easier time. At any rate, ritual is written and sent off for editing.