There is a cost to everything: every act, every decision, every passive avoidance, every active conflict. All of it comes with a cost. That cost might be hidden, it might be delayed, or it might be obvious and show up immediately as feedback, but nothing is free.

A sign of maturity and wisdom is not only having enough practical knowledge to count up the cost in material and immediate terms, but also to have enough lived experience to recognize whether or not the cost is worth bearing–emotionally, psychologically, or spiritually.

Books are tools that help readers attain practical knowledge. But they also help readers count the cost of decisions not yet made. To posses the curiosity about the world and the people in it; to have the desire to pick up the book that might answer such curiosity; then to read, absorb, and apply the lessons from that book to the accounting of the cost of an action in the world outside the book’s timeframe, purview, and even context. These acts collectively guided us down the path toward and through counting the cost of individual and collective decisions. And our guides used to be wise sherpas, teachers, and leaders.

We may indeed be on the cusp–if not already entering–a post-literate West. But we long ago dismissed, minimized, or abandoned the voices and wisdom of the sherpas, teachers, leaders, and guides who had the authority–based in deep lived experience and practical assessment of consequences and results–to guide us through counting the cost of our decisions. In our rebellious and individualistic age, we arrogantly forgot to count the cost of leaving them behind.

Soon, the piper is coming to collect his payment. And there is always a payment due.