A series
Flirting with Wisdom
Peter Gilderdale's Flirting With Wisdom series reflects on the interplay between curiosity and conviction, blending personal stories, history, cultural critique, and philosophical musings. Each vignette invites readers to embrace the beauty of unfinished thinking and the art of holding life’s ongoing questions.
Read in order
- 1 Philosophy of the Interrobang If wisdom lives in the tension between certainty and inquiry, can typography and the interrobang embody the beauty of unfinished thinking?
- 2 A is for - Acceleration A well-timed swing reveals the quiet power of momentum and the wisdom of accelerating at the right moment.
- 3 I am that Butterfly! A butterfly flaps its wings without knowing if it will spark a storm or nothing at all—its power lies in joyful persistence, embracing uncertainty, and trusting that each small act is full of life.
- 4 Truth, Wisdom and Cezanne Like Cezanne’s mountain, truth reveals itself differently depending on where we stand—always present, but always waiting to be rediscovered.
- 5 Wedgwood, Novelty and the Progress Narrative In our rush for novelty, have we overlooked not only the enduring value of the familiar but also the many other ways we might choose to value what we create?
- 6 Help, Identity - and Mr Rogers What if identity wasn’t something to defend, but something to offer—an ethic, not a battleground?
- 7 Find a Penny The tactile history of coins and the fading art of the coin toss—how a simple flip can uncover our deepest desires.
- 8 Hard Work or Good Luck The Edwardian postcard craze was the social media of its time, revealing a divide between those who believed in luck and those who saw success as a moral reward. A century later, are we any closer to reconciling hard work with fortune?
- 9 Teaching, Mozart and Salieri Teaching is its own kind of artistry—less about brilliance and more about guiding others toward their own voice.
- 10 Against the Grain Struggling at something doesn’t mean you’re bad at it—sometimes it just means you’re starting from a different place.
- 11 Warp and Weft A university should be a place where knowledge is woven together, not just pulled apart into individual threads. But what happens when the weft starts to fray?
- 12 Falling in Trust We talk about falling in love, but rarely about falling in trust — even though trust shapes the texture of every relationship that thrives or falters.
- 13 If you wish upon a… locomotive? Dreams can light the way, but if they’re only about the finish line, they often leave us stranded. Purpose, on the other hand, carries you forward — even when the dream falls short.
- 14 White Lies and Cake Something can be true — and still not the whole truth. That’s where understanding begins.
- 15 The Algebra of Context You can teach the same formula a hundred times — but it only arrives when the context is right.
- 16 A Flower or a Weed? What thrives in one place might be unwelcome in another. Sometimes it’s not who you are, but where you are that decides — what blooms in one garden gets pulled up by the roots in another.
- 17 On the Ball Sometimes your body dives before your mind agrees — that’s when you know you’re on the ball.
- 18 Vagaries of the Brain What seems like chaos to one person is harmony to another. You can live side by side for decades and still be discovering how differently you experience the world.
- 19 Objects of Worship Even ordinary habits can become objects of worship — and battlegrounds for meaning.
- 20 Re-Risking Society The most unforgettable lessons are often the ones that would never survive a curriculum review.
- 21 Thunder on the Keyboard Sometimes the most powerful music is the kind that proves you wrong.
- 22 Stockhausen, Picasso, and Egg on your Face Getting it wrong — and faking it — turned out to be useful. It taught me what real understanding takes, and how hard it is to ask for.
- 23 Handel-ing Compliments Graciousness is a small gesture — but it holds the power to honour someone else’s joy.
- 24 Happiness and Ancient Egypt What I saw in Egypt taught me that happiness isn’t about comfort — it’s about connection.
- 25 Promises, Promises When does a promise expire? And who decides what still counts, years after the moment has passed?
- 26 Babies, Teenagers, and Cultural Difference Cultural difference reveals our blind spots — and loosening our grip on what we think we know is part of the learning.
- 27 Adolescent Identity Some questions are too big to answer all at once — especially when you’re still becoming who you are.
- 28 Think like a Liberal From village megaphones to market ideologies, tracing the shifting meanings of liberalism—and why freedom without ethics falls short.
- 29 History as it was? The past may be a foreign country – but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to speak its language.
- 30 Professionalism – for better or worse Is professionalism always a virtue? Or can it be the mask of complicity?
- 31 Multi-tasking for Dummies When our best laid plans go awry, can we learn to trust the process?
- 32 A da Vinci coda - process versus results When our curiosity gets in the way of results, we can draw inspiration from one of history's greatest scatterbrains.
- 33 The dark side of Liberal education When choice comes at the cost of community, we may need to reconsider what freedom truly means to us.
- 34 Habitual change or changing habits When change is the status quo, how do we know if we're changing for the better?
- 35 The Politics of Canyons As inexorable as the forces of division may seem, everything a river erodes is deposited somewhere downstream.
- 36 The Politics of Uplift As we struggle to raise ourselves up, what are we willing to bury in the process?
- 37 The Problem of Fairness How can we know what's fair when our understanding of the word may depend on the hand we've been dealt?
- 38 A little bit of Pollyanna How deep are we willing to dig to find the good in people?
- 39 Articles of Faith Untangling what we know from what we take for granted can be a frightening challenge, but deepening our relationship to the truth may be worth the discomfort.
- 40 Of Comfort and Disquiet As disturbing as tales of monsters can be, perhaps they protect us from more troubling truths.
- 41 Oblivious Oligarchs Who can we trust to build a brighter future for us all?
- 42 Our Seven Worst Weaknesses Sometimes a change in perspective is all that stands between our worst weaknesses and our greatest gifts.
- 43 Becoming Centred Before we can meet in the middle, we'll need to agree on where that is.
- 44 One step forward, twelve back With each lesson comes a dozen more questions lurking just below the surface.
- 45 Theory and Practice Teaching is often much easier in theory.
- 46 Growing Trees How do we find the patience to tend to a future we may never see blossom?
- 47 Just Shy Call it what you like, but not everyone grows towards the spotlight.
- 48 Scuttlebutt - ancient and modern As the world changes at an unprecedented rate, perhaps we can learn from what is written in stone.
- 49 Rosemary Sutcliff and Stoicism How do the stories we read shape the stories we live?
- 50 The Palaeography of the Future Who can say what the future holds, but surely it won't involve long division.
- 51 Go Placidly It makes sense to look to the past for wisdom, but what we find can sometimes be distressing.
- 52 The Wisdom of a Handshake How much might we still have to learn from the simple act of reaching out?