So, here we have a man who is past his prime and is wise and knowledgeable. Isn't that a contradiction? Maybe he is at his wisdom prime while being past the high point on some other variable? Maybe his biceps don't bulge the way they did but he has the best feel for life he has ever had. Researchers in this day and age often think of 'variables'. Amount of wisdom is a variable as is bicep bulge. It is easy to see that the maximum bulge might be at a different place on a graph from where the maximum wisdom occurs. So, our guy is at his prime on one variable while not at his highest reading on another.
This is a fictional guy so we can't interview him or gather further evidence. But in real life, we can be at the height of one variable or another and not know we are there. Yesterday, a group of retired professors were discussing something called "process theology". It is a subject I totally do not know but during the discussion, one of the group was challenged by another because it seemed that some statements rather indicated that we might be at one of the heights of civilization right here and now. The man challenged gestured to the challenger and said that he was in the presence of a wonderful product of the ages, the men around him.
I immediately thought of my Vermont lawyer and graphic descriptions of our variables over time. I thought of kids in school, young marrieds just getting started in their lives together, old friends who have had ups and downs, those who have lost a loved one to death, those who have just gotten their final diagnosis. Any of them might be at the height of one or more aspects of life and not know it.
