Wednesdays Of Wisdom
The Motifs
Ten of them keep turning up in these letters. Each one is a way of personifying an idea I keep coming back to, and each has a reason I reached for it and not something else.
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The Gentleman
The seeker
The one who has not arrived, and is never drawn as though he has.
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Sophia
Wisdom, the one pursued
Wisdom herself. She calls, and she does not chase.
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Lady Folly
The counterfeit
Not wisdom’s opposite. Her near-miss.
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The Shadow
The inner enemy
The part of him that does not want to become wise.
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The Tortoise
Patience, the long game
Patience, and he is always already ahead.
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The Wolf
Loyalty, not threat
The predator that has stopped hunting.
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The Lion
Strength at rest
Courage with nothing left to prove.
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The Serpent & the Dove
Discernment
Shrewdness and innocence, as a single instruction.
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The Rose
Beauty named out loud
Beauty that costs something, and the only red allowed.
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The Cherry Blossom
Impermanence
Beautiful because it does not last.
Where a motif did not come from Scripture, its page says so plainly. Nothing here is dressed up as more than it is.
And none of it is required reading. If a letter only works once you have been here, then the letter has failed and the fix belongs in the letter.