If I Only Had a Brain

So for some reason this morning I began thinking about intelligence and what it means to be considered smart.

But let me first say that I think that the culture values “intelligence” a little too highly. Intelligent does not imply happy, people who believe so are truly fools. Personally I believe that to be kind and compassionate is much more important and brings much more happiness than being intelligent. I would much rather be around people who practice compassion than those who place knowledge above all else. Of course, I also believe a mark of intelligence is a compassionate heart.

I have a friend who measures intelligence by how well a person can spell. This person considers bad spellers as somehow unworthy of attention and clearly less educated and therefore not too bright. Personally, I’ve never met a truly intelligent person who could spell. I mean think about it, spelling in the English language makes little sense. In order to be a truly intelligent speller one must know the original roots of words because modern day spellings do not match pronunciations. If you do not know the origins of the words, spelling becomes a function of rote memorization. Being able to memorize does not imply intelligence by any stretch of the imagination.

So how should we measure intelligence? Well, I like the compassion thing; the more compassionate the more intelligent. But I do think that there is also an ability that some people possess that allows them to make connections between seemingly disparate pieces of information and that this is also a mark of intelligence. Existence is an interdependent network and to be able to see the connections clearly would be an amazing accomplishment. I have a colleague that says, “Life is a metaphor for life.” What an amazing statement; such a simple phrase that embodies the idea of interdependence.

But I guess my real point is that intelligence is over-rated. I would rather be kind and stupid than smart and miserable any day.

By the way, my spell checker worked overtime on this short blog.

Breakfast of Champions

I have a love affair with food that looks like shit but tastes good. I love mish-mashed piles of brownish-tan savory mounds of starchy and spicy goodness.

You can tell the social-economic status of a person's background by the way they approach food.

When the person you are eating with asks you, "Did you get enough?" more than likely he or she is from a family of lower economic status where the concern is whether or not you are leaving the table hungry.

A person who is more concerned with the taste of the meal is probably from an upper middle-class upbringing. For this culture having enough to eat is a given, whether or not it tasted good carries more importance.

Rich folks, well they like their food to look good. Presentation becomes more important the higher up the economic food chain you go.

So I guess you would place me kind of in between the first two categories. My cultural upbringing was lower working-class so I am innately concerned with having enough (an unfounded concern which I try to overcome), while at the same time I want food that tastes good (very middle-class). I don't give a rats ass what it looks like, go figure.

Anyway, I threw together a breakfast of fried potatoes, chorizo (soy, of course), and eggs this morning and thought I'd share. Oh and one part orange juice, three parts Squirt tops it off.

Bush Vetos Troop Withdrawal Bill

George W. in a no-surprise move on his part, today vetoed a bill that would call for troop withdrawal from Iraq. When asked why he vetoed the bill, George stated that, "withdrawal is not a very effective method. Rubbers, you know, condoms are a much better method. Or the pill, that's a good one, if, you know, the VD isn't a problem. Learned that one the hard way, sure enough. You know there was a time... huh? What were we talkin about?"

The press, knowing any further questions would simply confuse the man more, dropped the line of questioning and left the room shaking their heads.