I ran across this interesting illustration some time ago. You will find it amusing. An angel appears at a faculty meeting and tells the dean that in return for his unselfish and exemplary behavior, the Lord will reward him with his choice of infinite wealth, wisdom or beauty. Without hesitating, the dean selects infinite wisdom.

"Done!" says the angel, and disappears in a cloud of smoke and a bolt of lightning. Now, all heads turned toward the dean, who sits surrounded by a faint halo of light. At length, one of his colleagues whispers, "Say something." The dean looks at them and says, "I should have taken the money." Wisdom, what is it and how might we attain to its heights? Last week I introduced you to The Four Cardinal Virtues purported by ethicist Josef Pieper; Justice, Wisdom, Courage and Moderation. We developed the first last week. This week we will look at the second – Wisdom.

Very often we hear talk of ”the good old days,” in reference to periods like the 1950’s, and ‘60’s when it is claimed that the world seemed a much more easier and nicer place to live in. Songs were more melodic and sweeter, love more romantic, crime definitely less, and life, especially political life, was not close to being as corrupt as it is today. Recently, a ‘joke’ was distributed in mail boxes on the Internet, to the effect that its neither the National Football League, nor the National Basketball Association here in America that has the most corrupt people guilty of acts like carnal abuse, circulation of bad checks and incidences of tax evasion, but rather members of the U.S. Congress. But, this is really not a joke; it’s a serious matter.