Well, you can get a PhD in physics, in sociology, in history...But kindness is a quality that cannot be measured in that way; furthermore, kindness is something a person has to work on every hour of their waking life (take me, for example, always trying really hard to refrain from flipping off annoying drivers in morning traffic... [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] ).
I think that the principle of kindness being more important than wisdom should be read with an "outside" perspective. Certainly, these two are intertwined, but people who do not stop to think about this often value wisdom, or rather their distorted perception of wisdom, over the other. This is where the whole "the ends justify the means" principle originates as well-doing what's profitable, not what's kind. Kindness itself is often viewed as a form of idiocy, as in, "what was UP with that idiot Bilbo, why couldn't he have finished that nasty Gollum off?" (Yes, I know that this isn't what Frodo says, but anyway...) In the end, we, of course, realize that Bilbo's pity, and kindness, is responsible for saving everyone involved. If there isn't a lesson in that...
See? I do try to stay on-topic.
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~The beginning is the word and the end is silence. And in between are all the stories. This is one of mine~
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