Genius

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.â€- Arthur Schopenhauer.  How true that is.  I have known quite a few people with talent but very few geniuses (exceptional intellectual ability).   I know, perhaps, two or three people that come close.   Those people know they are smarter than average and are more than willing to let others use their abilities to resolve problems in their lives.  In other words, they share the genius they surely know they inherited from someone else.  I think most of us will agree there is nothing more disagreeable than an arrogant smart person.  Wait a minute, maybe an arrogant idiot is more disagreeable!  As a kid growing up in a coal camp, the smartest person I knew was the camp superintendent, and he could not read nor write.   When I did chores for him, he would reach into his pocket, fetch some change, extend his hand with palm open and tell me to take 50¢.   How many of us today knows someone that’s illiterate?   I have known two people in my life that were.  Today, that is unthinkable with the educational opportunities available to every American, there is really no excuse to be uneducated.  I believe the really important thing, no matter our smartness, is how much common sense we have and how well we use it.  So, if  I can’t qualify in the genius area, do I have any talent?  Alas, I fall far short in that area also.  I’ve been practicing guitar and taking lessons for well over a year and Jerilyn puts on her earmuffs whenever she sees me headed for the thing.   I am an utter failure at making things grow and carpentry might as well be some foreign language.  I guess I do all those things because I have fun trying.