she belongs to the streets

Hello friend—you’re receiving this email as a part of morning reading, a daily reflection on the parts of life worth living for. If you have feedback, comments, or ideas, please email me at [email protected]. I know daily emails aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, so feel free to unsubscribe if it’s ever arduous. Thank you! - Zach

WHERE WISDOM IS FOUND

Hello friend,

If I were to write a book about wisdom, it would be grand. Expensive. Large and ornate. It would break your back just looking at it, gilded in silver and gold, limited edition, the kind of heirloom to really draw the eye and fetch a huge price at auction.

Inside, if you could ever afford to read it, you would find all sorts of wild pontifications about all sorts of things: Nietzsche and Hegel and Jung and the foundation of the world and reflections on death and all sorts of wild, indecipherable academic bullshit. 

I would, in that book most of us are far too stupid to read, tell you wisdom was found on the mountain top. I’d make you climb them all to find out which. I’d tell you to seek out the advice and counsel of the oldest, wisest man in the world with the longest, greyest beard and say that only he could help you to enlightenment. 

Or the book would tell you that you had to study all sorts of other large, obscure books in order to be wise. That the only way to find wisdom would be to read until the papercuts in your hands bled through the huge stacks of paper on your desk. 

Or perhaps this book of wisdom would point you to the grandest, most prestigious universities, where doctoral studies lead to unending rabbit trails of questions. 

It’s curious because the book of Proverbs, the old, misquoted, oft-embroidered, best-selling book about wisdom of all times, paints a very different picture: it says wisdom is standing in the streets. Calling out. On the corner—on your corner. Wisdom is found, and can only be found, by living your life. By getting up. By going outside and opening your ears and eyes to whatever you could see and hear. 

Not on some far off mountain…

Not locked behind some application to study it…

Not the sole property of some guru and teacher…

It’s yours. 

All you have to do is get up and start listening for it. 

JOURNAL PROMPT: When was the last time you learned something wise?