Why name my blog smatterings? I am ever more deeply reminded of why I chose that name as I wrestle with the memories of my courtship experience and how to extract, clarify, condense, and explain the many lessons I learned.
"Smatterings" is defined as "a small, scattered amount or number," or "slight or superficial knowledge." He speaks a smattering of French. She has a smattering of of freckles. There is a smattering of left-handed people.
There is a difference between being smart, being intelligent, and being wise. Smartness is head knowledge. You can be street-smart, a smart mathematician, smart in geography. It means you know a lot and retain information. My (big) little brother is smart in sports stats.
Intelligence is how quickly you learn. An intelligent person picks up on systems and patterns and organizes information in a way to be able to retain it -- or at the very least, to know how to find it again. Intelligence allows you to grasp concepts and see possibilities that mere knowledge wouldn't allow. In short, "smartness" is an information collection and intelligence is the system by which that information is processed; the efficiency of the system affects the speed at which it can be processed. Thus, intelligent people are generally smart, but we all know that is not always the case. :P
Without wisdom, however, they both are useless. Wisdom allows you to apply that information to life situations. It allows you to view information through the light of abstract concepts. It allows you to bring information to a moral conclusion. It allows you to choose to overlook certain facts. It is wisdom that allows you to someone as an immortal soul.
With so much involved in learning, it is no wonder that most people only have a smattering of knowledge and even less have wisdom. I am deeply aware that the more I read, the more I learn, the more I comprehend, I have only scratched the surface. But it is also deeply impressed in me the minor importance of intelligence and smartness compared to wisdom. The first two are limited: no matter how much knowledge you gain, you will always be ignorant. There will always be subjects you don't even know exist. There will always be updates that makes your knowledge obsolete.
Wisdom, however, is timeless. But it, even more than the others, is a choice. You must choose to comprehend. You must make the effort to process your information in a way that increases wisdom. And you must decide to seek the source.
Like the others, it's an eternal search on this earth. You will never be all-wise. But unlike the others, wisdom never stops benefiting you. It is never outdated.
So..."Smatterings." I will only ever have a smattering of knowledge. But it is my intention to take those smatterings and process them in a way that gives a deeper comprehension. It is my choice to use those smatterings in the search for the good, the true, and the beautiful.
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