individuality

That’s the title of an article by UW professor Katherine Woodward, in which she calls for “a moratorium on wisdom” as an ideal for the old. The notion of “wisdom” has always given me pause:  too woo-woo, too subjective, and definitely not the exclusive purview of the old. We recognize the wise child with a shiver when we encounter one, and we’ve all met plenty of utterly uninteresting old people.