4 minute read
Last week I was on a flight and the older gentleman two seats over from me set his cowboy hat down on the middle seat between us. I looked over at the hat and couldn’t help but admire it.
The hat had seen a lot of weather, action, and years.
The white was faded in spots and the brown leather belt that ringed the crown had left dark stains.
The old man’s initials were branded into the side and a small bit of (what looked like) animal bone had been attached to the material.
But what really caught my attention was a gash in the brim that had been repaired with criss-crossed leather stitches.
I turned to the man and said, “That’s some hat. Would you mind if I took a picture of it?”
The old man chuckled and said, “Oh sure, go right ahead.”
I took a couple of shots while admiring the hat and being impressed by a man I hadn’t even really met.
All I could think of were the years this man had spent wearing the hat, living in the hat, maybe even sleeping in the hat.
I imagined how the cut in the brim had happened and him carefully stitching it up himself, affixing that bit of bone to it while he was at it, on a whim.
The man struck me as wizened and weathered as the hat itself.
Then, the illusion was shattered.
“That’s actually a new hat,” he said. “Bought it in Vegas about six months ago. Came like that. That’s how they make ‘em.”
“Really?” I said, surely sounding disappointed.
“Oh yeah. I wear it when I go on country music cruises.”
“Country music cruise?”
“Out on the water, watching country music from 10:00am to 10:00pm. It’s great.”
I stared at the hat for another minute, hardly believing it was new.
“You can get one like it, too.”
“I’m sure,” I said. But all I could think was, “Really? You can buy a hat that looks like you’ve been riding the range, living the tough life, poking dogies, and sleeping under the stars while fighting off coyotes? No thanks.”
Apparently you can buy a cowboy hat that makes you look like you’ve really lived the cowboy life.
*****
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want to become wise. Everyone wants to grow into an experienced, sharp-witted, learned sage. Who doesn’t want to be the person others turn to when they need insight, guidance, or some sage advice that’s based on real, lived experience?
Everyone wants to have wisdom…
But not many people want to go through the life experiences required to get wisdom.
We want to duck challenges, get out of growing opportunities, and shirk those moments that may not be fun, but ultimately produce something good in us.
I know that’s me.
I want the result, but I don’t want what it takes to get to the result.
I want flowers, but I don’t want to get my hands dirty.
I want to look like a cowboy who’s lived the cowboy life… but I don’t want to have actually faced cowboy challenges.
*****
Wisdom comes from living.
You can get an idea of wisdom by reading about it…but until you’ve applied it to your life and seen how it works in reality, you don’t really have it.
You can know about wisdom, but you don’t have wisdom until you’ve proven it true yourself.
I hate to say it, but… wisdom most frequently comes through challenging times and seasons.
What would it look like, today, to see the challenges you’re currently facing (as difficult as they may be) as opportunities to earn wisdom… grow into a more wise person… live out experience… and maybe get a dark stain on your hat that you’ve really, really earned?