If, as G.B. Shaw or Oscar Wilde or someone else observed, "Youth is wasted on the young," isn't there some reason to pose the possibility that "Old age is wasted on the elderly?" And if this is possible, on whom is old age wasted?... what is wasted and on whom?
Google is full of suggestions that it is wisdom that is wasted on the elderly, but, as usual, the meaning of "wisdom" is left hanging like some venerable wraith -- undefined and presuming that 'everyone' might agree not only on what wisdom is, but that it might be venerable in the first place.
I have a hunch everything is always wasted on someone, irrespective of wisdom or idiocy, youth or age. Everything is wasted until someone decides to investigate and use. Waste is life's/Mother Nature's most prolific product, perhaps.
I always like the mildly-twisted Dhammapada line, "Better your own truth/ However weak/ Than the truth of another/ However noble."
It seems a safe judgment that everything that is, is a byproduct of what was. To call is waste is a judgment call I suppose, depending on whether or not that byproduct is purposeful or needful/desirable. But as ol'buddhaman pointed out that life is inherently unsatisfactory, waste seems an appropriate designation.
ReplyDeleteWhat’s so special about the lack of precision regarding the definition of wisdom? It is an extremely abstract concept.
ReplyDeleteDefinition having or showing experience, knowledge, good judgment, and clear discernment.
You sure that is quote from the Dhammapada?
1. It doesn’t ring true.
2. I couldn’t find it or anything reasonably close online.
I did find this one that I like:
Better it is to live one day wise and meditative than to live a hundred years foolish and uncontrolled. (Verse 111)