Being wise was once considered a good thing. Wisdom is much more than simply “knowing a lot.” Some think that having “the ability to make sound judgments and choices based on experience” is another way of delineating who is wise and who is not.

Intelligence is more than a mere accumulation of facts. Gathering information is a good starting point. But what to do with that mountain of data? In most faith traditions, wisdom is lauded. Proverbs, a book in the Christian Bible, considers wisdom something that originates with God.

Socrates was wise.

I have been interested in the life of the mind for a long time. My quest to learn, often as an autodidact, dates back to a time in my early 30s when I realized I wasn’t that “sharp.” I began one summer to read. I’ve read voraciously ever since then.

During a key period in my life beginning in 2006, I had the good fortune to go to work for a brilliant man. Bryant Hoffman was also a good man: kind and thoughtful, too. He became an important figure in my life. He had his Ph.D. in English and had been a former college dean. He always deflected when I’d talk about this. He’d say, in he self-deprecating way that having an advanced degree didn’t make one deep, or particularly smart. In his case, I’d disagree. I had to work to keep up with things he’d toss off, facts about literary figures and Irish poets. He’d do this as naturally as most of us breathe.

I do believe he was onto something, though. Over the course of my time in the nonprofit world, when I was reading everything I could find on reinvention and personal growth, it was rare to find others who were doing the same. One so-called leader who had a prominent role in the LePage administration, once boasted that “I don’t read at all.” Not something to brag about in my way of seeing the world, but he didn’t think twice about sharing this ignorance with others, as braggadocio.

In my own life, most of my disagreements have been with people who refuse to acknowledge facts. Most often, these individuals clung to a position: political, ideological, religious—with great fervor, but without any factual basis.

We are living at a time when ignorance is rewarded. There is no better example of this than the election of Donald Trump. He has been able to peddle lies and factually incorrect information to a group of people who don’t read, don’t want to read, and yet, think they are markedly smarter than anyone else. What are they basing their pride and lack of intellectual acuity on?

I was struck Wednesday morning to learn that one of Maine’s senators thinks his constituents are below him, and that our wishes and votes don’t matter to him. He refuses to acknowledge Maine’s voting system that citizens of the state have voted for and ratified. That would be Bruce Poliquin. I like to call him “ole tree growth,” because I’ve never forgotten what a weasel he is, dating back to this time as the treasurer for the State of Maine. Back then, he wanted to skirt paying taxes on his palatial estate in Georgetown. He managed to make it work by manipulating the state’s tree growth regulations.

As I’ve written here at the JBE, I had my political differences with the late senator, John McCain. We didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of matters, left and right. But I also respected him and was saddened when he died.

I’ve also remembered that McCain was a reader. I recall him being interviewed, most likely on CSPAN’s Book TV, talking about the books he was reading. I was pleased to find this reading list of his. Pretty remarkable in my opinion, with several books I haven’t read (yet), and need to.

Wisdom, honesty, remaining oriented towards upholding the rule of law. These are three things that matter to me. They are part of the values I work at practicing in my own life. I’m saddened that so-called leaders fall far short on modeling these same things.

Spending most of my week working with teenagers in high school (and sometimes, middle schoolers), I wonder about holding them accountable for things that our president regularly refuses to practice. How can you demand honesty in students when the leader of the country isn’t honest? I don’t have an answer for that one. Do you?