Advice

Advice

"He who won't take advice will take the crooked track."
-- Scots Gaelic proverb

It is often said that advice is a two-edged weapon: it can both harm and help, depending upon how and whether we take it. Young Peredur (Perr-EDD'yr) of the Mabingion who was brought up in purposeful woodland seclusion by his mother, sought to go to the court of Authur. Peredur's mother gave him advice so unwordly and indiscriminate that it subsequently led him into the discourtesy of the grossest kind.

Without discrimination, advice can be worse than useless. When good and thoughtful advice is offered to us, we must have the wit to weigh it for its worth and implement it as sensitively as we can, balancing it with the prevailing circumstances that surround our case. When we offer advice to others, it must always be set within the context of our experience rather than based on someone else's criteria.

Age and wisdom tend to give advice to youthful inexperience, but it is not always welcome. The reactionary stubbornness of youth often chooses to take the longer road of personal example in order to gain wisdom. The crooked track that then unwinds may be like that traveled by Peredur - a road fraught with obstacles and difficulties. Only when we have traveled such a road and labored to clear the obstacles can we finally have a true context for advice that is offered.

"From the experiences of your life to date, what are the three best pieces of advice that you could offer someone about to make her way in the world?"
[From Caitlin Matthews' "The Celtic Spirit"]