Is He Smart or Is It Something Else?
I chose the category BEAUTY for a specific reason. Many feel the presence of well-chiseled physical attributes is attractive -- beautiful. Others say a mind is a beautiful thing. So let's discuss the mind a moment.
Have you ever heard someone say something like, "Joe Blow is such a smart fellow. He's a really intelligent guy." But is that really so, or could it be something else?
I was in a group of people yesterday and we were discussing Algebra 2 and Chemistry. Now I am a chemist. And I love Algebra 2. Is it because I am SO SMART? Frankly, no. I'm not stupid, but I am not so smart. It is something else.
You see, if you have a good memory, you will tend to like these things. I say tend, because you can still turn yourself off to any subject if you choose to.
There are a variety of memory types, no doubt. I have the kind that you don't even have to concentrate or think on a subject to recall it from "somewhere back there in the corner of your mind."
A friend was reading some article on a tree and was saying something about it. He was pretty surprised when I said out loud, "Oh, are you talking about the baobab tree?
He was. Now how did I come up with that? Or some song I'd heard as a young child in times so long gone they would still show silent movies on TV (no silly - that's not where I'd heard the song). Not only would I recall it, but the little ups and downs of the notes as well.
Was it because I'm SO SMART? No. So my thought is: don't be too quick to assume someone is smart. It may just be the memory they were born with and cultivated.
Image Credit » Baobab Tree: Botswana, Cropped from Pixabay Image
Comments
MegL wrote on August 18, 2016, 8:30 AM
I think the things you learn as a child stay with you most of your life. I still remember the adverts and the jingles they played when commercial TV first came to the UK, that's over 60 years ago. There was not much TV in those days and I loved reading. There are lots of odd pieces of information in my head as well from all those books. My father used to call me squirrel mind because I jumped so quickly from one thing to another! To me, many of the "smart" people are those who can think quickly "on their feet" and who have a politician's answer to difficult questions. While they may be smart, I despise weasel words! The truly smart people to me, are those who work well with others and have a truly large circle or network of friends that can help them in time of need. They don't have to be smart, the smart people will help them because they are a great networker and communicator and will do the small things for others that get people to like them.
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