Sermon on the Blunt: High Thoughts from the Gate

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Sermon on the Blunt: High Thoughts from the Gate

(Proverbs 24:7 — “Wisdom is too high for a fool: he openeth not his mouth in the gate.”)

There’s a certain kind of silence that says more than a thousand words — not the quiet of peace, but the hush of disconnection. That’s the fool’s silence in this Proverb.

See, in ancient times, the “gate” wasn’t just a doorway. It was the hangout for the wise — the town square, the judgment seat, the original coffee shop for philosophers. If you had something worth saying, that’s where you said it. The gate was the microphone of the mind.

But the fool? He doesn’t speak there. Not because he’s shy — but because he’s got nothing of substance to offer. Wisdom’s altitude is too high for him to reach. His ladder’s missing rungs called humility, patience, and self-reflection.

He’s stuck on the ground floor, mistaking volume for vision.

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The Gate and the High Place

To sit “in the gate” means to participate in the great conversation — where souls exchange understanding instead of just opinions. That’s what the Stoics called the logos — the rational fire that connects all beings.

But wisdom isn’t a free climb. You gotta earn your oxygen up there.
The air gets thinner where the view gets clearer. Pride can’t breathe in high places. Ego runs out of stamina long before enlightenment.

So the fool stays earthbound. He doesn’t ascend — he argues. He doesn’t reflect — he reacts.
Wisdom is too high for him because he never took the first step: shutting up long enough to listen.

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The Humble High

Now here’s the paradox: you can’t reach wisdom by reaching for it. You rise by lowering yourself.
You ascend by kneeling before truth.

That’s why the ancients — from Solomon to Seneca — linked humility and wisdom like root and fruit.
The fool doesn’t open his mouth in the gate because he’s never opened his heart in the silence.

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Modern Translation

Let’s put this in today’s smoke signals:

• “Wisdom is too high for a fool” — means truth requires altitude, not attitude.
• “He openeth not his mouth in the gate” — means wisdom has a frequency the ego can’t tune into.

Social media might be our modern gate, but the principle still stands:
Just because you can speak doesn’t mean you’ve earned the mic.

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S.O.B.S. Reflection

Every time you spark one and sit still, you’re climbing that invisible mountain.
The blunt becomes a censer — the smoke rising like a quiet prayer for clarity.
You breathe, you look up, and maybe, for a second, you see it:
Wisdom isn’t high because it’s distant.
It’s high because it demands you rise.

So next time you find yourself at the gate — whether it’s a comment thread, a bar stool, or your own mind — ask yourself:

Am I speaking from the smoke…
or from the stillness it leaves behind?

Because the real high isn’t about getting above others.
It’s about getting above yourself.

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