Minerva’s Owl

George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegal, a German philosopher who would have been 250 this year, wrote in the preface to his book Elements of the Philosophy of Right in 1821: “The owl of Minerva begins its flight only with the coming of dusk”.  Those who know me will quickly realize I cherry picked the Hegal quote for my own (as of now undisclosed) purposes and never read the book.  They would be right.  In my defense, I have an audio course on philosophy which covered some of his ideas for a full 30 minutes, qualifying me for nothing but cherry picking esoteric quotes .

Now, about Minerva.  I don’t remember ever meeting anyone named Minerva although I might have.  It turns out Minnie Mouse’s original name was Minerva.  I may have met her at Disneyland in 1967 while stationed in California or at Florida’s Disneyworld during one of my three visits since 1980.  In any case, any meeting didn’t make a lasting impression on me and I’m sure it didn’t on Minnie either.  A few ancestors on my mother’s side had Minnie as a shortened version of Wilhemina but no Minervas.

But Hegel’s observation from 1821 provides a great seque for me.  Those familiar with ancient mythology will recognize Minerva as the Roman goddess of wisdom (and a few other things), kind of a do-over god for Athena, the somewhat more ancient Greek goddess with similar attributes.  Minerva was accompanied on her travels by a small owl who became associated with her wisdom.  Owls are nocturnal, taking flight at dusk, so the phrase becomes a metaphor for wisdom and understanding becoming evident toward the end of a nation’s or individual’s days.  In other words, when we are old.

My own assessment of the flight decisions of Minerva’s owl is best described by a great eighteenth century American, Ben Franklin:  “Life’s tragedy is we get old too soon and wise too late”.  Old Ben was not the only notable historical persona to comment on this relationship.

• “Wisdom begins at the end.”  Danial Webster
• “Wisdom is not a product of schooling but a lifelong attempt to acquire it.”  Albert Einstein
• “So, with old age is wisdom and with length of days, understanding.”  Job 12:12

So great Americans, a brilliant scientist, and God’s ever faithful servant Job all seem to agree that as we get older we get wiser.

To be fair, this is not a universally accepted principle.  Socrates thought that:  “The only true wisdom is that you know nothing”, which makes it sound as though growing in wisdom as we age may not mean exactly what we expect.  And of course we have all heard that “… there’s no fool like an old fool”.  So, as I explore my own situation, all of us can individually decide if I can be categorized as “growing in wisdom” as I aged, becoming simply a “wise old fool”, or maybe just becoming an “old fool”.

To see if Minerva’s owl has possibly taken flight in my life, it seems worthwhile to first determine if I am indeed considered old at 75.  The National Center for Health Statistics reports that the current average life expectancy of a newborn male is 76.1 years.  The Social Security Administration indicates that the life expectancy of a male born in 1944, the year of my birth, is 72.   Looking at 5 generations of my male ancestors, the men on my dad’s side lived to be a little over 76 while those on my mom’s side lived to about 80.  While not a very good endorsement of the modern American health care system and discounting the fact that Martha Stewart thinks 70 is the new 50, it appears that the data supports that I am indeed old.

Those who know me may have already properly categorized me in one of the three possibilities I previously noted (growing in wisdom, wise fool, or just an old fool).  Maybe a few aphorisms and observations that are currently floating in my head will help the undecided to determine if I’ve gained any wisdom in my 75 years.  Here goes.

• Being born and raised as a male only child does not properly prepare you for the drama and helpless feeling associated with trying to raise four daughters.
• People around you do not get sick, lose their jobs, or experience a myriad of other life situations just to inconvenience you.
• Shit really does just happen-and often to good people.
• God seems to be pretty indiscriminate in choosing who is rewarded or punished in this life.
• Power and money are the accelerants in a fire more likely to melt your moral base into an unrecognizable and malleable puddle than anneal (harden and strengthen) it.
• The things I thought I would never get enough of when I was 20, sex and money, have been supplanted at 75 by companionship and time.
• The wise old man may say he does not fear death but he’s still pretty apprehensive about the process.
• Parents are more likely to be successful raising their children when they are both reading from the same page of what seems like a 1000 page book of nonfiction.
• Comics are the best part of any newspaper.
• Be suspicious of any absolutes including religious ones.  They tend to vary over time.
• As time marches on, we will all become members of the “good ole days” club.
• Constitutional “originalism” and the “inerrancy of the bible” seem somehow to be linked and espoused by the same groups.
• None of us had control of who our parents would be, place of birth, color of our skin, and early education.  Somewhere between 15 and 30, most of us realize that we are now  the prime influencer in how the rest of our lives progress.  If we don’t figure that out, things probably won’t go very well.
• Most of us don’t want constructive criticism and don’t react well when it’s given.
• Giving unsolicited advice can sometimes (maybe often) be interpreted as telling someone they are wrong and may sometimes (maybe often) result in an unexpected reaction.
• It’s easy to say you believe in something whether it be religious, political, or social in nature but much harder to follow through on those beliefs as life starts throwing punches.
• The message behind “…to err is human, to forgive divine” and “A just man falls seven times…”, Proverbs 24:16, isn’t how most of us assess wrong doing, especially if we are the victim.
• Real honesty in a committed relationship, marriage for instance, is an important key in maintaining that relationship over time.  It probably doesn’t entail coming clean on all the “dirty laundry”, but it does mean sharing the weaknesses that are responsible for most of that dirt.
• A sharp breaking curve ball and a sinking fast ball are two of the most difficult pitches to hit In baseball.  Life seems to be full of them.
• Plan for the best but allocate for the worst.  If things go wrong, you have a new starting point to plan for the best.
• In a critique of our friend Hegel’s book (see paragraph one above) Karl Marx wrote that “…religion is the opium of the masses”.  Indiscriminate use of opium (religion) can blind us to reality but, if used properly (and I believe as God intended) it helps us withstand pain and suffering and live life with hope.
• Libertarians and Statists have identical problems when it comes to addressing social problems.  Each sees possible solutions to a problem (coronavirus for instance) as an attack on their position rather than something with an optimum solution that won’t fit neatly into either of their political pursuasions.

Those who know me will be able to tell which of these “wisdom” observations actually reflect anything I have learned in my 75 years.  I have a feeling that if God allotted me an additional 75, it would not result in any significant improvement in my ability to use any  acquired knowledge more “wisely”.  I do know that if I tried to provide a list of supposed wise aphorisms in 1973 (the year we discovered Leslie was severely mentally impaired), in 1994 when I was divorced, or 2013 when Dawn was diagnosed, I might have a different list.  So, a last bit of “wisdom”;  Timing is everything.