The world’s waning

‘The high poets are gone / and I mourn for the world’s waning, / the sons of those learned masters / emptied of sharp response … After those poets, for whom art and knowledge were wealth, / alas to have lived to see this fate befall us; their books in corners greying into nothing / and their sons without a syllable of their secret treasure’ Daibhi O Bruadair (1625-98).

Four hundred years later, we too may be ‘mourning for the world’s waning.’ I met a publisher in Harare recently who told me ‘no one buys books anymore.’ Are we turning to Google and the internet for our wisdom? Where are those who think that ‘art and knowledge are wealth’?

Just a few years before Jesus appeared the author of the Book of Wisdom (Ch. 7) wrote, ‘I entreated and the spirit of wisdom came to me. / I esteemed her more than sceptres and thrones; / compared with her I held riches as nothing. / I reckoned no priceless stones to be her peer.’

We are in terrible danger of living superficial lives. We have a surfeit of information but a dearth of reformation. Our heads are full of noise from blaring radios but our lives are hollow from lack of reflection. Meanwhile our country drifts on without direction, without purpose, seemingly endlessly absorbed in tussles for power and wealth.

And God can do nothing. He has bound himself to respect our freedom. ‘In his will is our peace’, wrote the great 13th century poet Dante. But he will not force us to do his will.

There is a passage in Mark, Ch. 10, where Jesus invites a young man to forgo his wealth and give his money to the poor. We are told the young man’s ‘face fell at these words and he went away sad.’ He couldn’t bring himself to accept Jesus’ invitation. So he kept his diamonds.

So, we ask what is wisdom? And how important is it? Every culture cherished it and I have a book on my shelf which is a collection of 1,595 Shona proverbs.

If we look for wisdom and examine the sayings of old we find a rich store of treasure, a deep well of wealth, which can shock us into making good choices, choices that bring us peace.