I don’t consider myself especially bright. Never have. I was surrounded in my youth by savants, people whose length and breadth of knowledge was awesome to me then, and (of those of them who are still alive) is staggering now. I cannot imagine carrying the knowledge those people carry around in their heads.

Being exposed to those people, at that early age, caused me to do things most won’t- I stretched my brain. I looked at the world through different eyes. I developed the ability to stand back and circle something, so as to see it from a hundred different perspectives. Maybe one of the perspectives I could see was the correct one.

I have witnessed, up close, about every aspect of the human condition. I have been close with convicted murderors- close enough that we shared our lunches. One guy, I drove his car back to his house after he was taken away for his prison stint.
I have held the heads of alcoholics during DT’s to keep them from drowning in their own vomit. I have restrained heroin addicts during acute withdrawal. These were my friends. I have been close enough to horrid industrial accidents to hear the final screams of the dying man. Close enough for the dying man to blow his final breath in my face. I have watched family and friends die of horrible protracted illnesses. I have had to choose between the life of my father and the life of a trreasured family pet, when the pet decided to attack my father. Ever have to shoot your own perfectly healthy dog?

I have also witnessed birth, up close. Seen the struggles of a tiny infant to live. Seen holy men- truly, holy men- on their knees in prayer. Walked and talked with them. Worked with them, side by each. Visited scenes- both natural and manmade- of staggering beauty. I’ve been involved on the fringes of monumental engineering projects, and at the core of engineering projects yet unheard-of.

I’ve done things, too. If you look, not only at the Commandments, but also old Hebrew Law, it almost seems as if I made a special effort to break those laws one by one. Let’s not even talk about the catechism of Vatican II.

I’ve done, and seen, these and many other things, too numerous to mention here. I’ve packed a whole lot of living into my relatively short life, and done so because of my natural curiosity and, maybe, nosiness. I LIKE sticking my nose in places, seeing what is going on.

I read a lot too. I read, on average, a novel sized book a day. Sometimes my reading helps me to understand things I’ve witnessed in real life. Sometimes, I look at what I’ve read, and cry bullshit. Actually, it’s more often bullshit than anything else.

I know this: A day of real living is worth a month of reading. You will always learn more by getting your hands dirty than by research.
There are, of course, always subjects about which reference material is useful; you could probably never rebuild an engine- you wouldn’t know the torque sequence for the heads or the torque values or connecting rod clearances.

Still. Read about a leper colony. Then, go there. Change sheets on a bed so stained with body fluids that the stench can only be burned away. Big difference.

Real people, living real lives, can tell you more about the world than can anyone. Those who learn about the world from personal experience. The ones who learn about the world by research, are most often politicians and teachers, with no idea how the actual world works.

Here’s an interesting take from the Indigo Girls:

Gonna get out of bed, and get a hammer and a nail
Gonna learn how to use my hands
Not just my head
I’ll think myself into jail
Now, I know a refuge never grows
from a chin in a hand and a thoughtful pose
gotta tend the earth if you want a rose.

Get your hands dirty. It’ll make you a better person. And, you’ll have more wisdom than you can ever find in a book.