Smart People

I thank God for the mind he has given me, but more and more I’m starting to see what sets the truly smart people apart from the rest of us.

For one, I don’t think the smart people are tempted to click on links that say: “Singer Bobby Brown has heart attack.” Because why on earth would someone who’s intelligent care about a man who was never fit to be Whitney’s husband in the first place. (For those who do however, it was a mild heartache caused by stress but he is home now resting and in great spirits.) I know for myself, celebrity and entertainment news has taken up some of the space that could have potentially been used for quantum physics (or at least the capacity to spell it all by my own self.)

I also don’t think that smart people flip through an issue of “The Economist” looking to read as many of the short articles as they can get through in twenty minutes so that they can feel “productive” with their reading time. I fear that I have instilled in my own son the drive to quantify one’s reading. When asked about the book he’s currently reading, his typical reply is “I’m on page 112, only 40 pages left.” The difference however is that he can sustain his reading without the need for potty, chapstick, or snack breaks to stay awake. The last time I read more than 100 pages in one sitting I was on vacation fueled by twelve hours of sleep and several cookies.

The other thing I’m realizing is that smart people think deeply much of the time. I was noticing this recently getting off a plane. There was a man in the row next to me who had spent the entire flight earnestly studying a thick document that was a) clearly work related, b) in a font size that doesn’t agree with me and c) absent of any pictures, graphics, or cute emoticons. Totally not my kind of document. I on the other hand was doing serious work on digesting my texas barbeque lunch without giving myself away. Once my gastrointestinal track was clear, I managed to make it through the last 50 (!!!) pages of my David Sedaris book. Pleased with the accomplishment of having finished my 10th book of they year (because I am totally counting), I rewarded myself by taking a snooze.

While we were waiting to disembark, this same man – now with aforementioned thick document packed away – still looked deep in thought. He had the kind of expression on his face that said “not only are the two hemispheres of my brain interconnected and communicating, but they are also operating at full capacity and should not be interrupted by needless airplane chatter or conversation.” To ask “So is this your first time in Seattle?” seemed like it might threaten all of our chances to find out if time travel is physically or logically possible. Because this was a brain that was clearly working on something that important.

As I considered this man, I reflected on what was had been going on in my own mind. The predominant thought was whether or not the man in front of me was aware that his hair was completely sticking up in a million different directions having slept the entire flight – and then guessing the odds of whether he would notice and take action or if he didn’t what his wife might say when he got home. My mind then drifted to thinking about where on earth I parked my car and then remembering that I didn’t actually drive my car and then wondering if cab drivers took credit cards and then debating on whether I should just stop and get cash but then realizing that I wasn’t sure I remembered my bank pin code and then worrying that if they didn’t take credit cards that maybe I would be stuck unless the cab driver was nice enough to drive me home and then let me write him a check and then my Blackberry buzzed and I thought about not checking it because I really needed to focus on how I was going to ask the cab driver this question but then I am completely addicted to my Blackberry and I couldn’t resist it’s call and it turned out to be a good idea because I got an email from a colleague who was on another flight that was arriving at the same time and who unlike me had remembered that I didn’t have a car and offered to drive me home which was so great because then I could stop thinking about the whole cab dilemma and get back to the important business of the man with the unfortunate hair situation.

Watching this man was a signal to me that maybe I could use these “downtime moments” to better exercise my brain capacity. So I started to run through multiplication facts to get the synapses moving and pledged to read and ponder more. Even to read the stuff in small font. And especially the stuff I don’t understand or agree with entirely.

Tonight I did a google search on “smart people” and found a link titled “Why Smart People have Bad Ideas” and another that said “Smart People Believe Weird Things.” It was getting late and so I didn’t want to take the time to actually read the articles (I was already all filled up with my reading quotient for the night), but just seeing the headlines made me feel better. I’m sure if I looked further I would have found something about intelligence and wisdom – and about how much better it is to be wise. I also bet I might have stumbled on an article about a man who was sitting on an airplane runway who was close but did NOT actually solve the mystery of time travel due to an inopportune distraction regarding a seriously messed up head of hair.