Wise beyond your ears
Wise, to me, is having insight to the world around you and being able to make good decisions.
Our ears clean themselves. Jaw motion (chewing, talking) moves the old wax out making room for new.
The problem, then, is when we think we're smarter than the systems our bodies have had in place since the beginning of time, and go poking around in those cerumen (wax) filled ears of ours.
Sure, that cotton swab looks tiny enough, but it's actually pushing earwax deeper into the ear, where it gets stuck in the parts that don't clean themselves.