Foolishness is one of those delightful things wherein we don’t get to avoid it. If we aren’t foolish in ours lives, we lack wisdom. My family always told me that knowledge comes from books, wisdom comes living the books. You don’t simply get to build wisdom, you don’t find it in the store, you don’t find it under your bed, you discover it doing things that aren’t the smartest, or well thought out. Perhaps you did do the math, and then you found out you’re not the best at math.
Here’s the deal, you learn best from doing something and surviving it. So, how exactly does this translate to Jediism on the whole? I want to call to a scene wherein Yoda says that that the Jedi in the Temple had become so serious, that laughter was a rare thing. We love to take ourselves seriously, do we not? It’s important to be a serious, studious person, aye? The slightest offense, the wrong statement, the debate that captures us, we have to be presentable at all times, we have to be taken serious at all times.
And yet, how do we marry the three? To have fun, to be wise, and to be foolish? I wish to propose that to have fun is an avenue of wisdom, that the lifted spirit allows us to willingly explore the foolish side of ourselves, to lessen the burden of dreary reality. When was the last time you played a sport with the intent to execute instead of play? When was the last time you actually learned something you had a passion for because you followed a plan? Our greatest leaps come from when we enjoyed ourselves, don’t they?
Sure, we develop strong skills with dedication and pursuit, but that’s a structured, not very foolish method. We develop skills in ways that are linear, ways that are predictable. When we throw caution to the wind, and let our past experiences guide us, we often find that that’s when we achieve exponential growth. It’s not because we planned on it, we let ourselves go, we fell into the moment and lived in that moment.
Can you recall a time when your mind just...shut off, when you were in perfect sync with your body, perhaps that time slowed down, or you could see everything going on in fine detail? It didn’t come from thinking about it, it didn’t come from planning. It came from becoming one with the moment itself. You can’t always live in perfect sync, although we might seek it, but we can recognize that by throwing some caution to the wind, we can find progress.
Take your studies, when was the last time you chased the rabbit down it’s hole, to explore an idea, to take it to its logical conclusion and then beyond it just to see what happens? When was the last time you explored beyond your goals? When did you flex your wings and let fly? When did you go into a meditation and go beyond? When did you perform an IP task beyond the needed goal?
We often find the recklessness of youth amusing, because watching a toddler attempt to figure out how science works only to be taught that physics tends to win is funny because we were once like that, but we only found those limits when we dared to dream, when we found the pursuit fun. In your lessons, in your pursuit of all that you do, don’t be afraid to let loose a little, don’t be afraid to dally on something that catches your eye, don’t be afraid to risk a little. A little bit of foolishness is not only how we become wise, it’s how we stretch beyond yesterday, it’s how we forget our limits. Meditation can be such a serious business, learning deep philosophy can be onerous and giving of headaches. Perhaps this week you could learn some philosophy from the ants or how chocolate melts in your mouth, perhaps you can meditate on the spiral cut of curly fries and what you can learn from it today.
Perhaps you can smile a little and run into the oncoming storm, just because you can. Live your live a little, be a little foolish, and if you scrape your knees doing something that makes you laugh...well...that’s how we grow wise. The best wrinkles are from smiles, and foolish people smile the most
