Wisdom and Ambition: Incompatible?

All of us have seen the Christian “Fish” bumper stickers. Most of us have seen a Darwin version eating the Christian version and another “Truth” version eating the Darwin. I wonder. Could we apply the same illustration to wisdom and ambition?

We equate wisdom with peace, knowledge and stability. We equate ambition with energy, risk, and instability. If we are ambitious, do we blow by and miss the peace and knowledge? If we focus on wisdom, are we too caught up on peace and stability that we miss opportunities in life? Are these two traits incompatible? Does wisdom eat ambition? Does ambition prevent wisdom?

This question is one of relevance to me as of late. I look into the eyes of my sons and see the determination, the energy, the youthful edge that all children have. No fear. That, ladies and gentlemen is ambition at it’s purest. Children have it. Oh, so much more than you or I. Afraid of nothing…..until they grow wise. A child will conquer the furniture by the time they are two. Climbing up to the summit of Mount Leathercouch, the heroic Noah plans to prove his superiority to gravity by jumping, sans parachute, to the base below. No fear. And he will have no fear, until the moment dad isn’t there to catch him. One time is all it takes and he is immediately “wise.” He will then tell other preschool superheroes “Think not, young ones, of jumping from Mount Leathercouch. For yours will not be a successful landing.”

A young boy runs to his grandfather and claims, “Papa, I am going to be President when I grow up!” The grandfather responds, “That’s great, my child, but first you must register to vote. Once you’ve registered as a Republican, you need to run for local office. Establish yourself in politics for a few years. After that, we send you to the Senate. It will require a lot of work and we’ll have to sell a lot of lemonade to get you there, but it can be done. Finally, we raise a few million and you’re off to the White House. Great idea!” We all know that isn’t how it goes. We feed ambition at a young age. We all tell our children, “You can be anything you want to be.” At what point did our elders stop encouraging that ambition and begin calling it “youthful arrogance?”

Here is my struggle. I thrive on being ambitious. I sit here under the fluorescent light of my office and wonder what’s next. What couch can I jump from and how will it end. I can’t wait for the excitement!! Then I realize that I’m not a child any longer. I find my ambition waning in favor of stability, for that must be the wise decision. Is this true? Must I truly give up ambition for wisdom? And if so, wisdom is just a consolation prize?