Intellectual maturity, however, is not just a product of reading and contemplation. It is the endresult of an examined, engaged and well-lived life. All the education and experience in the world cannot change the character of a person if that person chooses to behave in an inmature way, or to shun those principles that make someone serious, retrospective and wise. Consequently, as we strive to be intellectually mature we engage in bringing a sense of order to our lives, learning respect for others and gaining an ability to think before we speak.
If knowledge accummulation was all that it took then most old scholars, writers and activists would be mature intellectuals, but they are not. Some people I respect as scholars and writers do not measure up simply because they are more concern about what some literary scholars call "performance"or about their politics then they are about imparting wisdom. Wisdom is knowledge encapsulated within temperance, a bit of long suffering, and an eye toward contributing something that lasts beyond the season. That is why there are so few truly mature intellectuals in our academy and our public life.
But there are some, and they have an influence beyond what they might imagine. Not all of them get everything right, and in today's critical world we can find much fault in their work and thoughts. Being intellectually mature doesn't mean that you are perfect or that you stay up with all the cultural changes, only that what you say is based on solid principles that neither vacillate or are given to enhancing a personal reputation. Some may seem rigid but in fact are not because they understand that they don't know everything, but they are firm because they realize that without firm opinions and recognizeable positions debate and intelletual negotiation is impossible.
Intellectual maturity is also not bond by particular cultural parameters. It is easy to see the mature intellectual as some kind of Einstein or Neibhur--notice the absence of women here--but there are others who do not fit the image but are so in their particular ways. What makes them mature intellectuals is that after a life of accummulating knowledge and engaging actively in their fields, and after a sizeable body of work, they then retreat to reappear only when they have something important to say or write.
Intellectual maturity is also not the domain of the academy or journalism or even the sciences. We tend to get many of them from those disciplines but that is only because we recognize them more easily. The first mature intellectual I met was na old fellow that lived next door to our home. In the afternoons he would gather the barrio kids and tell them stories about the Mexican Revolution, la Llorona, about science and anything that a barrio kid would be interested in. I'm sure that he got some things wrong, at least in the details, but he taught those of us who paid careful attention that there was knowledge to accummulate and worlds to explore.
He was a sober man who read much, said a lot less than he had to, and listened, even to us rowdy kids. Another non-academician, non-elite was Sister Zacharias, a sunday school teacher in a small church that I attended. It was hard to sit through a lesson of hers--she mostly taught adults but I would sneak in occasionally--and not be moved by her spiritual insights, her scriptural knowledge and by the conviction that we could trust every word that came from her mouth. As someone who reads much about religion and doctrine I know that she did not get everything right, but she motivated us to search the divine and to trust.
Trust is a fundamental characteristic of a mature intellectual. You trust them to say only those things they really believe are true, and only after they have been tested it through intense study and action.
After many years of engaging in the intellectual pursuit I realize that intellectual maturity may come with age and experience--though there are young mature intellectuals--but it does not come as a logical sequence. The world itself does not prepare or train us to be intellectually mature. And true intellectual maturity is not found within a moment or a season but is something that lasts for the person's remaining years.
When I think about it that way I realize how far I am from achieving that state of mind. So, for the moment I simply write about it while I admire those who are--from a distance, lest they discover my intellectual inmaturity.
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