A phrase caught my attention this week, “the difference between knowledge and wisdom.” Put into context, I was wondering how, as a society, we can make sense of our collective experience of COVID. At this point, there is an inkling that an end, or perhaps more accurately, a shift, is in sight. The pandemic will not be the dominant force in our lives sometime in the foreseeable future.
I have read that after the pandemic of 1918, there were few if any references or reflections on that calamity. That strikes me as a great loss. What could we have done, today, with the knowledge, and yes, wisdom about that experience? We will only add to the tragic dimensions of this experience if we try to jump back to what was the familiar or the “normal” in our past life. Yes, understandably, there is much pent-up energy and desire to go out, visit, and travel. We also need to understand and reflect on the meaning that living through COVID had for us, personally and collectively.
That is why the phrase about knowledge and wisdom resonates. As people did in 1918, we know the terrible facts of the pandemic. There has been immense loss, 500,000 deaths, dislocation and disruption. Knowledge defined is the facts, the ‘what’ and the ‘how’, or actions taken based on the facts.
We have the terrible facts or knowledge about this pandemic. Wikipedia offers that wisdom combines “knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight.” The task is choosing to process the knowledge with ‘experience, understanding, common sense and insight.’ This requires courage and strength. Specifically, it requires personal reflection, asking questions, dialoguing with others, listening, writing, journaling. The distillation of this process will create wisdom. What worked? What didn’t? What could have been done differently? The rewards, I am sure, will greatly outweigh any drawbacks.
If we leave it and only move on, that will add to the list of losses and rob us a more profound, solid, and robust recovery. It will also cheat future generations of a deeper understanding and a source of wisdom about this time that only those of us now alive can offer.