You know the old expression, “I wish I knew then what I know now.”  To be truthful, what I know now at the creeping-up-on-70 age is that I didn’t know that much then and know less now.

Socrates was to have said, “The only thing I know is that I know nothing, and I am not quite sure that I know that.” How different that is than our sense of knowledge as we grow up.

I am reminded of Fr. Leininger telling the sophomores in his high school class at Strake Jesuit in 1972 that we were indeed sophomores, and he then explained the roots of the word. I am pretty sure he shared that insight with every sophomore class he encountered in his decades of teaching. Sophos– wise and moros – foolish, that is to say, we thought we were smart and wise, but we weren’t. It has been so for that age group for centuries.

Fast forward in the growing-up process and people begin to think they have gotten past that immature stage and are, in fact, quite intelligent, knowledgeable and capable. If they continue to grow in their efforts to seek knowledge, they will gain the wisdom necessary to embrace the humility that is required to see that they actually aren’t all that and a bag of chips.  That process can take years and decades, and many never reach the honest conclusion. No matter how much we know and are capable of, it is a pittance compared to some others and negligible on the scale of all that there is to know.

One of the comforts of the senior years is the loosing of the burden to know it all.

Perhaps the old expression made new should be, “I wished I did know now as much as I thought that I knew then but admit that I don’t and won’t ever.”