[Sethomas]

"Stupidity is also a gift of God, but one mustn't misuse it." - John Paul II

I was rightfully hesitant in posting those meanderings because the only people who seem to complain about stupidity are 1. those who are inundated in it and constantly feel the need to verbally distance themselves from it, and 2. the marginally intelligent who feel a false sense of empowerment from seperating themselves from the uneducated teeming millions. Back when I lived in the Ivory Tower, the only people I knew who would ever talk about "stupid people" were the severely socially inept. Back when I paid my dues to Mensa, half the letters published in the monthly magazine essentially asked what the hell was wrong with us that we needed such a community in the first place. It was once brought up that, although we at once had Isaac Asimov of whom to brag for his being the president, the truly stunning minds of any given time would probably be somewhat embarrassed to join an intelligence society. I can't imagine Brian Greene in conversation talking about how he is a world leader in a mathematical construct that dictates that the universe has eleven hyper-dimensions... and, by the way, has a membership in a 2% society. That'd just be like Robert Frost putting on his résumé that his poems have been featured in the latest poetry.com anthology.

So, compassion is far more important than intelligence. My RH at Chicago literally had a one-in-a-million mind, but I'll remember him most for being there beside me at my hospital bed. My physics professor lost, in the 60s, his bid on the patent to the laser by about two weeks while a graduate student at Columbia, but what made him a good teacher was his infinite patience.