Thinking about Thinking

I have a friend, about my age, who is one of those guys who always has excelled in so many things. All A's in school, advanced degrees, professional success: wonderful things dot his life like walnuts on a sundae.

Except, when there is something he can't do all that perfectly, all the toppings fall off of that sundae.

You know the old saying that old Will Rogers always said: "Everybody's dumb, just in different subjects ." I mean, there's only been one perfect person to ever walk this earth, and the rest of us fall far, far short of His standards all the time.

But when you can do so many things so well, why should you care that you don't know how to overhaul your transmission? Especially when there are so many people trained to overhaul your transmission!

And why get all pee-oh'ed and throw things, just because your efforts at calligraphy look more like the crayon scrawlings of Miss Van Breeman's 3^rd grade class? (That was the real name of my 3rd grade teacher, Hampton Elementary School.)

Maybe it's the drive to excel that made him so successful in so many areas, but why not cut back on expectations and enjoy a shortcoming or two?

And perhaps Will, the old cowboy philosopher himself, might have also opined that everyone's brilliant, only in different areas.

There was a guy in my crowd whose grades were consistently underwater (below C-level). As a matter of fact, I recall him showing me a high school report card that reported that he had failed every single class for that term. What a card! He just wasn't cut out for scholastic success. But he had a business sense, and he was always involved in some entrepreneurial venture. I remember my Dad saying that "Mr X" was not smart enough to know that he was not smart enough to succeed at things, so he just went ahead and succeeded.

Later on, I heard he was involved somehow in a grocery store. I thought, well, maybe he's the freight-truck unloader or cart-bringer-inner or something. (Both honorable jobs! I've done them!) No, he owned the shopping center, with a large grocery store and a dozen or so other stores.

Maybe smart people aren't the only ones with good brains. Or maybe the best brains aren't owned by smart people.

I'm not smart enough to know the difference.