Wisdom, he reminds us, is like an inheritance: it is accumulated, and it is passed on. Wisdom is the unhurried fruit of time served as a mortal. As such, wisdom is, pretty much by definition, what you lacked in “the former days.” Every nostalgic impulse to turn back the clock is a foolish willingness to sacrifice all we’ve learned. Here is the paradox of temporality: to be is to become; to become is to lose and to gain. The “good old days” are only tempting when you forget how foolish you were. You can’t go back and keep the advantages you’ve gained.
