What's So Good About Being Smart?

"When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people."

 - Abraham Joshua Heschel

I didn't even have to become old to figure this out. I almost feel like I'm stepping out of the Matrix when I ask: what's so good about smart people? Seriously. It's just such an assumption in this world that it's good to be smart. People praise smart folks. They praise them basically for their genetics and their environment. (Although to be fair, praising a person for their good looks is basically the same thing.)  

It is treated as a moral failing to be dumb in this world. Dumb people are the group that it is okay for everyone to sh*t on. How many times have you heard an atrocity or misfortune that happened to someone justified or brushed aside because they were dumb? But if being smart is overwhelmingly due to genetics and environment, then the same should be said of being dumb. I also feel the need to do a bit of a sidebar here. A lot of people seem to think, or at least they act as if they think, that environment is something a person can change at will. When I use the word environment I am talking about those early years of a child's life when their personality is most shaped by a caretaker of some sort. I don't mean a 30 year old (or even an 18 year old) jumping up one day and deciding that they are going to turn their life around. Despite what society tells them, it's most likely too late for these people; their most formative environmental experiences have already taken place. All that to say, that for me, environment ≈ genetics. People are who are adopted are a different but minority case. The vast majority of people around the world are raised by their parents or other family members.

Being smart is not an unrivaled good. The same intelligence that created antibiotics also created the atomic bomb and continues to creates drones. Being intelligent is more of a boon for that particular person than a good for humanity in general. It allows one to be more effective exploiter in our rather exploitative world. And I guess that's why people truly worship smart people. 

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Photos from campus

I'm torn in so many different ways. 

I want to be a hippy and yet I want to be disciplined. (or at least I want the results of being disciplined)

I feel drawn towards the happy-go-lucky and the reality and suffering of life.

I regularly daydream about having a wonderful, perfect childhood even though it's an impossibility. 

I am a pessimistic old white man (stuck?) in a young black woman's body. 

I guess I'm just a paradox like much of life.

Ideas, ideas and a new job

So as usual, I have a bunch of ideas floating around in my head.

I will be starting another blog soon and just spent the last hour researching good, affordable tripods for tall folks. I plan to do a lot of photography on my new blog. My husband already has a higher-end point and shoot camera that he never uses. It's bigger than the smaller point and shoots so I just assumed it was a DSLR. Shows how much I know about photography, lol. But everyone started somewhere and I'm so inspired by the young women I mentioned here. If they can do it, so can I. I don't want to give too many details about the blog but I expect it to be GOOD.

Also, I have a new job. It's nothing I'm too excited about but I think it's good for me to get out of the house. It's a cold calling, data center job but at least since the company has a tech focus, I am learning a lot about new technology.

This wasn't supposed to be a gratitude post but my few days of on-the-job training have made me grateful that working at a place like this isn't my only option in life and that I have a husband who makes enough to comfortably support both of us.

I've also been wearing makeup on a daily basis. I think I will start recording myself on my webcam just to see my regular mannerisms.

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It might be just facetious to call this Daily Gratitude at this point. Especially since I haven't posted in over a week. But here are a few things I was grateful for since my last post.

This Oprah magazine. It hasn't been cheering me up as much as it used to but I still appreciate how bright and beautiful the cover is. 

Making Kale chips. They were a bit too salty but otherwise very delicious. I  ate most of them in one sitting. Here's a recipe.

Finally, here's my husband and I taking a walk through our neighborhood together over the weekend. I'm quite happy that Spring is here and that the weather is warming up.

And one more thing, I found a website that is speaking to me on so many levels. It's so nice to know that you are not alone in this world.