Introduction to When Monkeys Fly
About the forthcoming book…
There’s no place like home, except when home is caught in a whirling tornado of foolishness. Churning like a Kansas twister, the winds of media, politics, and popular culture blow a swirling gale of blustering opinion, vaporous policies, and airy notions of every kind. All the gusty posturing leaves us gasping for insights that supersede the issues of the day- reminders of the essential nature of things and of the habits that lead to success in ordinary life. But finding such wisdom in the fanciful world into which we’ve been dropped seems less likely than discovering monkeys that fly.
Clearly, we’re not in Kansas anymore.
The title of my forthcoming book is a reference to the creatures in Dorothy’s dreamt Land of Oz who kidnapped and flew her to a scary showdown with the Wicked Witch of the West. The lessons of that and other encounters along the yellow brick road helped Dorothy to burst the bubble of her tornado-induced dream world, returning home a bit wiser than when she left.
In similar fashion, the flights in the book deliver you to a showdown with today’s dreamy illusions, delivered as ten wise habits that contrast with those foolish impulses as much as Kansas did to Oz:
(1) Think and Speak for Yourself
. Liberty of conscience vs Submission to cancel culture
(2) Choose Freedom over Comfort
. Independence vs Serene serfdom
(3) Own Your Outcomes
. Self-responsibility vs The victim mindset
(4) Be Skeptical
. Questioning vs Doting acceptance of authority
(5) Confront Fashionable Nonsense
. Calling out the ridiculous vs Woke indoctrination
(6) Put Away Childish Things
. Shedding youthful notions vs Chronic naïveté
(7) Treasure Individuals
Celebrating individuality vs Identity politics
(8) Live Consciously
. Paying attention to the real vs Screen-numbed diversion
(9) Seek Meaning
. Pursuit of purpose vs Lazy nihilism
(10) Embrace Adversity
. Growing through challenge vs Learned helplessness
But the exploration of these habits is not constrained to the Land of Oz. Both contemporary and timeless perspectives are examined, illustrating the wise and the foolish through colorful analogies that range from medieval torture to nuclear particle colliders - from slapstick pie fights to the Zombie apocalypse. All tease you to reconsider assumptions and to seek deeper truth- some wise habits that might just advance your best life if you keep at them. Then too, the wise words of renowned minds offer sound launching points for each leg of this voyage, borrowed from the likes of: George Bernard Shaw, Friedrich Nietzsche, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mahatma Gandhi, Mark Twain, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Werner Heisenberg, Jane Austin, Groucho Marx and 50 others. The monkeys keep good company.
Which raises the question: What is the essential nature of wisdom?
The term is variously defined in dictionaries. Some explain wisdom only by enumerating the acquired or innate human qualities that the word encapsulates. The Oxford English dictionary declares wisdom to be: “The quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement”. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as: “ability to discern inner qualities and relationships, (or) good sense”, while the American Heritage Dictionary defines it as: “The ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting.”
Other sources couple action to such qualities. The Collins dictionary says it is: “the ability to use your experience and knowledge in order to make sensible decisions or judgments”. Dictionary.com defines wisdom as: “…knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight.” Perhaps most succinctly, the Macmillan dictionary defines wisdom as: “the ability to make good decisions based on knowledge and experience”.
Wisdom has also long been the subject of scientific inquiry. The book: The Scientific Study of Personal Wisdom, (Michel Ferrari and Nic M. Weststrate) collects a range of this scientific research and serves to illustrate the diversity of thought around the topic. The editors divide the book into four sections representing distinct perspectives in scientific thought and research on wisdom:
The first grounds the understanding of wisdom within the cognitive sciences, seeing wisdom as an enhancement of cognition which incorporates relevance. Wisdom may simply grow from the memory of profound life experiences or may have a neurobiological basis wherein certain brain systems are foundational to the expression of wise traits.
A second section of the book explores how contextual factors impact the development of wisdom, seeing it as a “real-life process” that involves the integration of conflicting ideas. Here, perspectives emphasize the importance of cultural, master narratives of wisdom, including religion and spirituality, or cultural influence.
The third section focuses on the transcendent and contemplative qualities of wisdom such as are embodied within Buddhism, Sufism, and mystical Christianity. Noted here are the inherent paradoxes of wisdom that make it “difficult to conceptualize and measure with rigor”. Clearly, the analysis of wisdom isn’t as simple as being caught in a Kansas cyclone.
Remarkably, the final section of this scientific compendium offers an entreaty to actively cultivate wisdom rather than merely seeking to understand it. It even advocates for re-envisioning the mission of higher education around wisdom inquiry, not merely knowledge acquisition, suggesting that students should leave university not just smarter, but wiser.
Quite so.
These definitions and scientific perspectives serve both to capture essential elements of wisdom and to highlight its complexity. Yet, despite the thoughtfulness of these explications, I think a simple analogy distills the action and impact of wisdom in a more concrete and accessible way:
Think of a connect-the-dots puzzle, the type that family restaurants print on paper placemats to keep children busy while waiting for their food. The child draws lines to connect numbered dots printed on the placemat and, when connected in proper order, the picture of a monkey emerges to the delight of the child.
Wisdom is the ability to perceive the picture that a situation’s dots represent in advance of lines being drawn. Whatever neurobiological basis it may have, in practical terms wisdom is the capacity to recognize the patterns that lead to good ends or to bad ends, a capability gained only through study of history’s lessons and through long experience married to objective reasoning. The wise are able to perceive patterns in the world and the outcomes that those patterns portend because they’ve connected the dots of a lot of pictures over time and have seen many similar examples directly and through allegories.
Like the child in the restaurant, the naïve simply can’t connect situational dots to see the picture in advance. They lack sufficient exposure to the patterns of wisdom. By contrast, some who do have decades of experiences never seem to gain much wisdom and forever connect the dots in whatever way paints the picture of their presuppositions or imaginings. They are blind to the real shape of things and often try to blind others to the obvious as well. This is the opposite of wisdom: foolishness.
Still, wisdom can be acquired with the right approach. The naïve (say, a little girl from Kansas for example), can acquire wisdom through stories, examples, and through mounting experience, so long as reason guides her exploration of these things. But the foolish dismiss wise examples by allowing emotion to guide them instead, seeking comfort rather than facing discomforting wisdom. They draw whatever picture makes them feel good in the moment by affirming presuppositions rather than following the dots. And if wiser people can still perceive the monkey beneath their scribblings, the foolish are inclined to grab a fist full of crayons to blackout the picture entirely if they can. Media, politics, and popular culture are the crayons of our foolish age.
Yet, whether or not one can perceive it, the monkey is right there on the paper. Wisdom lets you mentally connect the dots of a situation to see how things really fit together, empowering you to take actions that will lead to better ends.
Still, wisdom does not come easily.
At the end of the movie, The Wizard of Oz, the good witch Glinda tells Dorothy that she could have returned home at any time by clicking the heels of her Ruby Slippers together and repeating three times: “There’s no place like home.” When asked why she had not explained this to Dorothy earlier (before all the trouble had been endured), Glinda blithely explained: “Because she wouldn’t have believed me.”
Now, if I had been Dorothy, at that moment I would have stretched out and punched that witch right in the nose, saying: “Are you kidding me! Sure, I would have been doubtful, but I would have given it a try! And, maybe, just maybe I would have avoided all the horrors that I’ve just been through! Did you also know about the flying monkeys? My God… flying monkeys!”
But I digress. The point is that in order to be awakened from her dreamy bubble, Dorothy needed to first gain new perspective and to practice some wise habits- even if by force of aerial simians.
Of course, we all benefit from the perspectives of our fellow travelers (whether Scarecrow, Tin Man, or Lion). Yet we are each increasingly trapped within self-reinforcing thought bubbles of our own making or have simply been swept up by the cyclonic bubbles of socio-political orthodoxies (think: the media bubble, the university bubble, the Beltway bubble, the Hollywood bubble, political party bubbles, and cause du jour bubbles of every ilk). These are often as fanciful as Dorothy’s dream. What’s more, these twisters are unlikely to dissipate anytime soon- perhaps not until we see monkeys fly.
Fortunately, the flying monkeys you’ll find in this book are not exactly like the evil ones in the 1939 movie starring Judy Garland. Instead, these flying monkeys are more akin to their depiction within Frank Baum’s original book: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. At the end of that story the flying monkeys actually helped Dorothy and her friends by transporting them over land barriers to reach their final, happy destinations. This book’s flying monkeys serve a similarly helpful purpose: offering high flying perspectives to let you see the forest not just the trees, or rather, the monkey not just the dots.
No doubt you will find some of the monkey’s musings to be uplifting, though others may merely raise your ire. Some may reinforce your current view while others may challenge you to rethink. I hope that’s why you are here, because no amount of heal-clicking is going to let you avoid encountering some rather unexpected flying monkeys along the way. So be it. Though the road is yellow, it is not for the cowardly (lions excepted.)
But, like Glinda, I realize that you won’t simply believe. Fortunately, convincing you about one position or another is not the point of this book anyway. Afterall, even those who study wisdom with scientific rigor disagree. Instead, it hopes to surmount the internecine tornado spun up by media, politics, and popular culture so you might consider ten significant habits that can help pave a path to wiser action. As such, this road winds through quite a diverse range of topics, some bright and sunlit, and others more darkly brooding.
So, put the Ruby Reds aside, watch Glinda float off in her sparkly bubble while gently pressing a tissue to her bloody nose, and keep an eye pealed for those flying monkeys.
We’re not in Kansas anymore. You’ll just have to follow the Yellow Brick Road.
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