Wisdom and Aging

I've been thinking a lot lately about wisdom, perhaps because I say the Serenity Prayer pretty much every day (“God grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot change, the courage to change what I
can, and the wisdom to know the difference”).  Also, recently someone said to me that some things I had said in a meeting were very wise.  Hmmm...

One of the stereotypical hallmarks of aging is wisdom. Have older people cornered the market on wisdom?  Am I wiser now than when I was younger?  Can you foster wisdom in people?  

What exactly is wisdom?

When I did some research on wisdom, I found that there wasn’t a whole of agreement on what wisdom is.

Definition

Wikipedia defines wisdom as “the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight.” 

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines wisdom as:  “knowledge that is gained by having many experiences in life; the natural ability to understand things that most other people cannot understand; knowledge of what is proper or reasonable, good sense or judgment.”

So, wisdom might consist of:  knowledge, good judgment, good decision-making, the ability to apply experience and knowledge, common sense, and insightfulness.

There may be more discussion about and research on wisdom these days as the bulging Baby Boom generation – our generation – moves into old age.   Researchers agree that wisdom is hard to study, but not necessarily on what it is.

Research by gerontologists and psychologists tells us that some of the characteristics of people deemed wise include:

• Higher well-being
• Ability to accept reality with equanimity
• High self-awareness but low self-centeredness
• Better, more active coping
• Good emotional regulation
• Humility
• Reflective
• Empathetic
• Pragmatic
• Learn from previous negative experiences
• Generous

A New York Times Magazine article called "The Older-and-Wiser Hypothesis" from 2007 noted that “certain qualities associated with wisdom recur in the academic literature: a clear-eyed view of human nature and the human predicament; emotional resiliency and the ability to cope in the face of adversity; an openness to other possibilities; forgiveness; humility; and a knack for learning from lifetime experiences.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/magazine/06Wisdom-t.html?pagewanted=all

The Times article goes on to discuss a California study of older people:

“What the Stanford researchers [Laura Carstensen and colleagues] have found — in the laboratory and out in the world — is that despite the well-documented cognitive declines associated with advancing age, older people seem to have figured out how to manage their emotions in a profoundly important way. Compared with younger people, they experience negative emotions less frequently, exercise better control over their emotions and rely on a complex and nuanced emotional thermostat that allows them to bounce back quickly from adverse moments. Indeed, they typically strive for emotional balance, which in turn seems to affect the ways their brains process information from their environment.”

There seems to be agreement that being old, or older, doesn’t necessarily confer wisdom. 
According, again, to The New York Times: "Surprisingly, a good deal of evidence, both anecdotal and empirical, suggests that the seeds of wisdom are planted earlier in life -- certainly earlier than old age, often earlier than middle age and possibly even earlier than young adulthood.  And there are strong hints that wisdom is associated with an earlier exposure to adversity or failure.  

I really agree with the latter point regarding adversity.  When I think of the people I would consider to have wisdom, all have struggled with some type, maybe multiple types of adversity at some point in their lives.

What do you think about wisdom?  How important is it to you as an older woman to be wise?  How have you benefited from the wisdom of others?  who do you know that you would consider to be wise?  Food for thought...