Of Oracles and Wisdom-Keepers, Then and Now

We're all familiar with the notion of the wise old guru who lives in a cave on the mountain. Seekers of wisdom would set aside time to make their journey to the East to find that mountain, climb to its apex and ask the burning question on their hearts. 

In Greek mythology that wisdom was found by making a journey to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. In contrast to directly asking the guru, who was considered a repository of wisdom, seekers would make their inquiries to the god Apollo via a medium known as the Oracle of Delphi. 

In both examples, the wisdom being sought required a journey with a quest. In both cases, the wisdom proffered was frequently veiled, a riddle that needed to be solved, a puzzle to be pieced together, a cryptic conundrum to be de-coded. In short, profound truths required engagement and effort to be laid bare.

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I woke this morning thinking about the contrast between those ancients and our modern world. Instead of the wisdom being privately pursued by seekers who make sacrifices to obtain it, the self-proclaimed gurus hire PR firms to promote their books or start podcasts and shout it from the mountaintops via social media platforms. 

Those thoughts brought to mind an anecdote which I shared in a blog post titled Dali: Madman or Genius? It went like this: According to the Masterpiece Paintings Gallery website, "Dali's ego and need for attention were never satisfied. His thirst for scandal was unquenchable. And 'the thought of not being recognized was unbearable', he said. He used to walk through the streets of New York ringing a bell whenever he felt people were not paying him enough attention. 'Every morning when I wake up I experience an exquisite joy -- the joy of being Salvador Dali -- and I ask myself in rapture what wonderful things this Salvador Dali is going to accomplish today.'”

What's going on here? Dali's behavior was preposterous, but.... but what's really going on?

At the center of it, the difference may well be contentment. I've read about Hollywood stars who are never content. Their whole lives revolved around ratings, or being acknowledged, or being seen with the right people. Is that really the meaning of my life, what others think of me? Or more specifically, what others whom I don't even know think of me. 

Teenagers struggle with this because they are immature. At a certain point, it's time to grow up and move on, isn't it?

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