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.