Listen to Wisdom, whether screaming or whispering and, let Wisdom win your heart every time.

The Book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Bible has at least four different words to describe folly, foolishness and the person, the fool, whose life embodies the ways and means of folly. I didn't know that until I read a paper by Gary D. Nation. If you google him, you'll find his paper, "Character Deficiency Syndrom".

I confess I qualify by my actions for a medal in all four depths of foolishness. Nation says the simplest fool doesn't know the consequences of their foolishness. At the next level the fool knows the consequence, but doesn't believe they will suffer such. At the next level the fool completely understands the consequences, knows they will be experienced, but doesn't care. This fool has a "bring it on" attitude and may, according to one proverb, be incurable. Somewhere even deeper into foolishness, the Hebrews had a word for it, is the fool who mocks every thing and every one, to the point of having no standing in the community,  For this fool, nothing has value and creation is a hopeless, loveless, faithless blob to be used and abused.

What's the antidote to foolishness and the only hope for fools? Wisdom.

I define wisdom as the experience and trust of one's higher power in the moment of choice. This definition, I realize can cut both ways. A fool, experiencing themselves as their higher power in the moment of choice, can I suppose be called wise in their own foolishness. My hope is to push the metaphor in the other direction. The Book of Proverbs does this very thing. In Proverbs Wisdom opposes foolishness, every level of foolishness, even the deepest, most pernicious.

Wisdom...I know I have a choice, the choice between virtue and vice. That's as simply as I know how to describe the vast moral world open to every human being. I found this description in John Calvin's comment on Proverbs 8, so don't give me credit. What I can say is this:  I've chosen vice. I've also chosen virtue. I know right from wrong. Vice is wrong. Virtue is right. Wisdom is the voice of virtue in the moment of choice. Right now wisdom screams and whispers and the wise listen and follow and the fools heap up the foolishness. Be wise. Live wise. Listen to Wisdom, whether screaming or whispering  and, let Wisdom win your heart every time.