Side track / raised question: in order to be a true Gandalf, does it take one or two Peregrin Tooks to emphasise by contrast how wise you are?
Insofar as I know the saga (cough Ionlysawthemovies cough), Gandalf’s judgement seemed reliably good, but I wouldn’t be all that impressed by his wisdom compared to that of, say, Aragorn, or Legolas, or any other of the just decently sensible people.
If I’d place myself on that scale somewhere, I’d be Gandalf’s Apprentice who isn’t sure if in being so, he can surpass the common-sense Aragorns of the world who don’t actively try to learn Wisdomology.
Okay, stretchy analogy aside: I believe I’ve been lucky enough to stumble upon certain manuals of particularly sensible ways of thinking that I have thenceforth learned and adopted – my Gandalfs are the rationalists. They may not be ‘wise’ in the sense that Gandalf is, and tend to instead deconstruct exactly that sort of thing, but I do think that if wisdom legitimately exists at all, this is what it’s like.
And yet I don’t think I’m much wiser than average.
Actually, um. Maybe wisdom is more complicated than a point on a scale.
I know I’m a fool in many ways, and hopefully, wise in others. I’m whimsical, I still procrastinate often, I ramble a lot, I often don’t know yet where I’m going when I start talking, and I’m naive on a lot of subjects that matter. But I think I understand people and the world fairly well, I’ve acquired certain useful thinking habits and ideas, and friends come to me for advice sometimes.
Does that answer the question a bit?