Leap

Learning - the end in itself

 Wisdom shouts in the streets wherever crowds gather.

    She shouts in the marketplaces

   and near the city gates

   as she says to the people,

    "How much longer

   will you enjoy

   being stupid fools?

   Won't you ever stop sneering

   and laughing at knowledge?

   Listen as I correct you

   and tell you what I think.

    You completely ignored me

   and refused to listen;

    you rejected my advice

   and paid no attention

   when I warned you.

    "So when you are struck

   by some terrible disaster,

    or when trouble and distress

   surround you like a whirlwind,

   I will laugh and make fun.

    You will ask for my help,

   but I won't listen;

   you will search,

   but you won't find me.

    No, you would not learn,

   and you refused

   to respect the LORD.

    You rejected my advice

   and paid no attention

   when I warned you.

    "Now you will eat the fruit

   of what you have done,

   until you are stuffed full

   with your own schemes.

    Sin and self-satisfaction

   bring destruction and death

   to stupid fools.

    But if you listen to me,

   you will be safe and secure

   without fear of disaster."

I learned late that education is an end in itself.  The penny dropped during my time at university.  Education is its own value.  It is not a stepping stone to a career.  It is not a stepping stone to become a productive member of society.  It is not a stepping stone to help the economy.  It is greater than any of these.  They are by-products; not ends.

I urged you to choose yourself in a previous assembly.  Learning gives you the tools to become what you are; a particular individual.

The writer of Proverbs personifies wisdom and knowledge as a women to be prized above all else; that she is someone you are to commit to completely.  Through this commitment you will become an individual; It is not through the clothes you wear or how you have your hair or the opinions that you share.  You will begin to understand the world around, question the things that your culture gives you the impression are true.  You will begin to discover the thing that is true for you, the truth for you to live and die for. 

Knowledge wakes you up from stupidity.  Stupidity is the result of the press doing your thinking for you, religion doing your believing for you and your culture and government doing your choosing for you.

This is what the writer means when he says that she (wisdom) cries aloud in the marketplace.  She cuts through the noise that pretends to be the truth, the noise that keeps people stupid.  The noise that makes people mock and laugh at the truth.

And consider this; life is lived forward.  She (wisdom) gives you the ability to make the right choice at the right time and in the right way.  She (wisdom) helps you take that leap ahead into the future.  No one can make those choices for you.  Reason is powerless to give you certainty.  Reason reflects back, but life is lived forward.  Wisdom - she provides you with the courage to leap.

When I look back upon my life, I can join the dots.  It gives me the impression that it could not have happened any other way.  However, when you look into the future, particularly those of you in your final year, you cannot see the join let alone the dot.  You are forced to face the future’s openness.  You are forced to take the leap.  Wisdom gives that courage to choose a direction.

Eduction has its own value.  You undermine it by seeing it as a means to a career.  You undermine yourself if you mock it and don’t commit yourself to it.  Commit to it and it will broaden your horizon, remove limits to your choices and enable you to become what you are.

Musings from the mind of my wonderful husband, for his assembly tomorrow.