Do You Know What It Smells Like in The Sistine Chapel?

Why knowledge can be learned, but wisdom can only be experienced

Photo by Calvin Craig on Unsplash

Have you ever met someone who thinks they know everything? Are you someone who knows thinks they know everything at times?

That was Will (Matt Damon), a prodigy custodian turned math guru in Good Will Hunting. By looking at a painting of his counselor, Sean (played by Robin Williams), Will eviscerates and rips apart Sean’s life. Sean becomes very emotional and makes Will get out of the office.

Will is a very smart prodigy. In a single night, he can read several books, and he is a better mathematician than even the best of Harvard professors. But it is in a scene the next day that Sean puts Will in his place, and relays a message to Will: he doesn’t know anything.

The above is one of the most popular scenes in Good Will Hunting — the park scene. Sean acknowledges that he stayed up half the night thinking about what Will said to him. However, he then fell into a deep peaceful sleep after realizing that Will…