Blog #14 - Experience To Wisdom

Experience creates understanding, understanding creates empathy and empathy is wisdom.

Life is experience. We all have it. We're all having our experience every moment of every day and unlike truth, experience is completely individual to us. This is why identity politics is so catastrophic.

You can't seperate people into groups. Black people, gay people, disabled people..., have things in common but to categorize them based one one thing, you deny their individualism.

Dr. Jordan Peterson once said, if you take identity politics to it's inherent conclusion, you reach the individual. Every person is their own category which is something we've already known in Western culture for a very long time.

A major problem with personal experience is that I don't know what yours is and you don't know what mine is. This can cause all kinds of misunderstanding. It's caused families to fracture, friendships to end and wars to be fought.

Another problem with personal experience is that you can misinterpret your own experience and believe your experience is more or less extreme than it actually is. Of course then you can argue that "if that's how I experienced it, it was (or wasn't) that extreme" but most people are changed by extreme experience and can be spotted by those who have also experienced in extremes.

I mentioned Dr. Jordan Peterson and admittedly, I'm a huge fan of his. I don't agree with everything he says but I believe his intentions are good and that he is making positive change in countless lives, mine included.

One of the things I love about him is that he is very emotional. When he speaks about things he's passionate about, he sometimes sheds a few tears. He's mocked by his opposers for this but being in the intellectual, academic sphere and being willing to care that deeply is a unique and beautiful thing as far as I'm concerned.

I know Peterson's emotions are genuine because I know he has suffered extremely. I know this because I have too. I can see in him, the same emotions I feel when I consider anyone else suffering the way I have. I don't just mean people I love. Even the thought of the most horrible people suffering the way I have, breaks my heart. That's not because I'm some pillar of virtue, it's because deep suffering is that bad. The suffering I've endured has humbled me in that way. That's what experience does.

There are a million other experiences that I haven't had much of. I am ignorant in many ways and my extreme experience has taught me that. It's something I learn and relearn every day. If I don't understand someone's perspective, it's very likely because my experiences are different than theirs.

With all of the vast experiences in the world, it's no wonder it breeds so much chaos. This is very obvious when anger overtakes understanding. I believe in most cases, you don't hate a person, it's more likely you're misunderstanding their experiences. That doesn't mean that their response to their experience is right but it may explain where they are at, enough to get back to peaceful dialog.

I live my life grounded by the words of the Bible and the life of Christ. My many experiences have shown me how chaotic it is to try to understand my experiences without that foundation. It's impossible.

If your experience doesn't lead to understanding and empathy for others, I believe you haven't experienced enough yet. The good news is, you have no idea how strong you are yet. You may have more hardship to endure but you will find peace and understanding on the other side, if you're grounded in truth.

Experience creates understanding, understanding creates empathy and empathy is wisdom.