When This Blows Over

So, to return to Euripides, what really is wisdom in the
21st century? Is it to be judged according to the values of
those who inhabit the Podesta WikiLeaks archive?
Is being smart defined as being on lots of corporate
boards, having an impressive contact list of private cell
phone numbers, name-dropping one’s Ivy League
degrees, referencing weekends in the Hamptons or on
Martha’s Vineyard, or being ranked in the top 100, 1,000,
or 5,000 of some cool magazine’s list of go-getters and
“people to watch”?
Is there not wisdom in being able to drop an 80-foot pine
tree with a chain saw within a foot of the mark, or to take
apart a hydraulic ram in an hour, or to steer a bulldozer on
a narrow uphill road? Can MSNBC news reader Brian
Williams tell the truth any better than the Michigan lathe
operator? Is Lois Lerner, formerly of the IRS and now
enjoying a multimillion-dollar retirement, more likely to
file an honest tax return than the Wyoming rancher, or
would you feel safer knowing that Press Secretary Josh
Earnest was working on a high-voltage wire outside your
front door? Or is wisdom sometimes gained by losing the
polish on one’s hands? Is the wrinkled man’s face as
trustworthy as the thirty-something’s peach fuzz or the
Botox grin of the middle-aged metrosexual on the evening
news or the pollster who assures you that the election has
already been decided before the voting?