I’ve recently been pondering the question, what truly constitutes wisdom? Can it be determined by age, your intelligence quotient or how many people read your weblog? It is a question that shall probably forever elude me.

What prompted me to philosophise over this is my physical state of health. I have spent at least half of 2006 partially debilitated with some sort of illness. Is this a sign of age, and is age a deterministic factor of wisdom? Just yesterday, I discovered my first fully-white strand of hair on my scalp. Not half-white, not grey, just plain white. A couple of days prior, I was told by doctors that I have a hernia. This is a follow-on from two bouts of bronchitis (there was a noticeable gap in between), which had me coughing my lungs out over a period of several months, placing stress on my abdominal muscles. That in turn stemmed from an infection that left me with laryngitis. I can’t even remember what might have caused that. There was some concern that I might develop pneumonia (which incidentally is what felled James Brown yesterday). That’s all on top of my usual issues with hayfever and eczema.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that my body is collapsing (apart from my cholesterol, I’m quite healthy overall), but is this a harbinger of something more? Are these signs of age, and if so, am I any wiser? Can I join the (in)famous greybeard clique in the community? Is there a form that I can sign, and do I need to remember a secret handshake? Is there a sign that states "You must be this grey to enter"?

Far out… And this is only on the threshold of my 25th birthday…