Ecce Homo is the last book Friedrich Nietzsche wrote before cracking up. Its chapter titles include "Why I Am So Clever" and "Why I Write Such Great Books."
Well, how smart am I? I certainly have a high I.Q. (I was in Mensa briefly, and the entrance exam was a piece of cake for me.) Like my sister, I can do cryptic crossword puzzles. But sometimes all that seems unimportant. I know a lot about things like history and geography and mathematics. Yet someone like William Shakespeare seemed to know everything about life! Compared to him, what do I know?
Toni Morrison says, "People never forget how you made them feel." I certainly remember all the times when I ended up feeling stupid. Like the moment in my childhood when I put a Popsicle in the back pocket of my pants and it melted. When I told my mother about it years later she couldn't believe that I'd done something that dumb! But there it is.
Another thing I remember from when I was little was the time when a boy pulled out his coat sleeve beyond the end of his hand and showed me the opening, saying "Look at the TV in here!" I actually looked, and of course his fist came out. (I think I fell for that more than once.) I guess I was pretty dumb back then.
Which reminds me of an episode of the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes, in which Hobbes asked "How did you get all the way out here with both of your legs in one leg of your pants?" and Calvin said "I fell down a lot."
No comments:
Post a Comment