I probably used to think that intelligence was fixed. Then I got older and realized that I was also getting smarter. Ironically, I used to think I knew plenty. Now I know that I knew practically nothing in high school. I knew how to laugh, how to read, how to braid hair, but I sure was a work in progress. Still am, obviously.
Whenever I start feeling discouraged by the quality of work my students churn out I need only pull out one of my high school essays - handwritten on notebook paper - to humble myself. Boy, some of those essays were awful. I still remember my high school paper on Vincent Van Gogh. Mostly, it was really well done. I can recall spending lots of hours researching in the SCSU library and carefully cutting out photocopies of his paintings. But my conclusion?!?!?! The teacher was baffled and said something to the effect of, 'This paper was very well done but the comparison to Marilyn Monroe in your conclusion does not fit.'
What was I thinking? I suppose I was in a Marilyn Monroe phase. I know I owned some posters of her. I must have seen some tortured artist similarities. Oh, the shame. I actually use that example - my bizarre tacked on analogy - when I teach concluding paragraph strategies as something not to do. My students enjoy having a laugh on me!
When I went to the Blinn library today I was again humbled, and this was in just one aisle. Humbled by the task in front of me. There is so much I have not read, and yet my body insists on 8 hours of sleep a night. There were the works of D.H. Lawrence. Hmmm. I've only read a few stories, so I pulled Sons & Lovers off the shelf. Next was Doris Lessing, just one shelf down. Wow. I really should have read some Lessing by this point, more than just a story. I grabbed The Golden Notebook. On the shelf behind me sat several copies of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar. Can you believe I've never read it, even though I did months and months of research on Plath's contemporary Anne Sexton? I checked it out too.
It struck me as it's struck me before - so many books, so little time. I hope I'm not merely spouting bumper sticker phrases. Everything I am comes from my reading. Any emotional intelligence I possess comes from reading. Any sense of geography, culture, history, art, et al comes from reading. (Ironically, reading doesn't help me much with technical stuff. I cannot for the life of me decipher things like cell phone manuals or furniture instruction pamphlets.)
I love Doctrine & Covenants 130:18-19 - "Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come."
We're all of us gaining intelligence in our own unique ways. It's all worth it. It's for keeps. My mother has so much intelligence about spiritual matters. She ponders the life of the soul and connects deep and eternal principles. She reads and reads, just like Grandma Janell. Janell knows so much about self-reliance, sacrifice and devotion. My father has spiritual intelligence too and loves to read too, just like Sherry, whose book room I have previously envied on this blog! My dad has intelligence about history, about the great men {and women} who peopled the past. Here's a fragment of a recent memory ... driving to or from the airport with my dad while listening to The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam, glad to know just a bit about the bleak challenges faced by soldiers during that conflict.
Marni has attained psychological intelligence, and I am not merely referring to her Ph.D. No, she understands problems that people face. She has learned from the people she's helped. Courtney is so intelligent about health and principles of nutrition, and lives her knowledge. I could go on. Jonathan attains knowledge about a variety of subjects, but especially knows what it means to be a conscious, present human being. Andrew, too, has intelligence about relationships and knows how to have joy and give joy.
I am glad we are all attaining in different veins. Each of us will have something to contribute to that great eternal conversation that awaits.
7 comments:
Marilyn Monroe and Vincent van Gogh ... rhyme!
I've always been impressed with your intelligence Erin! Being married to Andrew has made me realize that indeed we all have different types of intelligence. I am good at certain things and he is good at certain thing (often the things I'm not good at - like computers - he once told me "You don't have to be scared of Excel Courtney." Well, I can be - if I don't get it.
Honestly, growing up I didn't realize that I was smart and I don't mean that in an egotistical way - but I didn't feel like I knew very much (compared to the rest of the family.) And I must must must state that I never got this feeling from the rest of the family but i compared myself to the ways other people did things or thought. Hello Erin - you aced the ACT and forgot to study! You got the same score as Marni but for different areas - and yet, both higher than me (alas the Rocori Drumline was practicing outside the open windows where I took the test!) Marni would build things and take apart lawnmowers - and she took Statistics in college. What? How am I smart when I can't do that. I loved your articles in the Texas A & M paper - brilliant. Mom understand music theory (and she took statistics -- must be that math/music thing.) Dad, hello - look at his bookshelf and he can figure things out too like Marni - oh I'm going to build you girls beds. Oh, ok! Anyway...
After going to college and graduate school and Massage Therapy School I realized - I am smart but in a different way. I have tried to apply this with my students - I am not a good test taker - I am a great studier but I'm an even better researcher and research writer. I stink at tests! I learned that I have the ability to recall years worth of information and stories when I teach which keeps my students involved because it's locked away and I can recall things I haven't thought about in years - but then wham, two seconds later the class is listening to an interesting survivor account, or whatever - I also have the ability to recall entire plots of movies, commercials, plays, and often stories - in great detail for anyone who cares to listen!
So blah blah blah -- all I'm really saying is that people are intelligent in different ways based upon who they are and what they are drawn to. I for one, do not wish to read all the books you discovered in the library (and don't just say I want to read Debbie Macomber - but that's true because sometimes I need fluff when I read Holocaust literature - but I would love to attend more prenatal massage training and learn to become a doula - it just uses a different part of my brain.)
I think the most interesting part is when you're different from someone else and they have the gift to draw you in to their world -- as you do for me! Or any other member of our extended family. And that is intelligence - to want to learn about and from others, and not feel inadequate because you don't have that type of knowledge.
Sorry to ramble ... must be a trait of someone who got a lower ACT score. Hahaha I think I'm going to go to my grave still saying that!
Courtney - I love your response. You do have an amazing memory! And we all deeply admire your knowledge of the holocaust and of genocides around the world. Look at you, you've traveled, given papers in foreign countries, run departments, plus you know so much about anatomy and physiology and are VERY smart about the human body. I give you all the credit in the world for getting Graham to eat apples and carrots. It was your knowledge, presented appropriately, that changed his mind. You are an eclectic person who also has lots of musical intelligence, like how to sing and phrase and be musical!
Also Courtney, I never tease YOU about Debbie Macomber, only Marni.
But I will tease you about your knowledge of Mormon Rap. Wow, you have amazing recall on those lyrics!
:)
Courtney - one more response ...
YOu also have a confident persona. That is an emotional intelligence trait, I think. You are firm in your beliefs and very committed to your principles. I admire that too.
I'm sorry you didn't feel smart growing up. I always thought you were sharp as a tack.
I am also sorry the Rocori drumline was practicing out the window. They are fantastic ... and distracting.
I laughed at Courtney pointing out the rhyming . . . er . . . celebrities. Another kind of intelligence that you have, Erin (which I have always admired) is the ability to laugh at yourself. It's the kind of intelligence that allows one to feel confident even while wearing a trenchcoat and eating toothpaste in front of others. ;)
Erin that is SO not true - you totally teased me about Debbie Macomber on my blog when I asked for book titles.
ahhh how soon you forget. Perhaps those hair dye pills have erased your memory!
It makes me happy that we are all readers... who cares about smart... well kind of. I remember going to Grandma Ravsten's and that she always had some books to give me. She and Grandpa were great readers. I remember my mother standing and stirring the jam cooking while holding Gone with the Wind. And when you were in first grade you didn't really take to reading - you could read - you just weren't entranced by it and I was surprised. THEN you took off in second grade and never stopped. We are truly book and reading addicts and I love it.
Post a Comment