Is Being Smart.... Dumb?

I am a smart person. I am not bragging, it is just a fact. I have a high IQ and skipped the eight grade. Most important of all, I have common sense. I was born like this, I had nothing to do with it. I have always said that someone with common sense is better off many times than someone that only has "book smarts". As I get older I am beginning to think that being smart is not the way to go. When you are smart, people expect more from you. They think that you can solve their problems. You become the "go to" person whenever there is a crisis. On the other hand, the dumb person is not expected to do much. Don't ask them, they can't do it. (Or so we think). If a dumb person does a task wrong once, they will never be asked again. And so their life goes on without anyone's expectations. If you work with a dumb person, you will probably have acquired some of their work duties. The worst combination is dumb and nice. They will coast along in life happily. Don't ask them for help because they are too dumb, but don't criticize because they are too nice. I am tired of being smart. I am getting burnt out. I think I need to try dumb for a while. Maybe the dumb people are really the smartest of them all.

Robbery vs Burglary

This afternoon, a friend and I were discussing crimes and their punishments. I am the type of person that gives others the benefit of the doubt, but not when it comes to blatant crimes. The ones that are so bold that I cannot believe that the criminal has the nerve to plead not guilty. We began to discuss a persons motives for robbery versus burglary. Which was worse? Robbery is stealing from a person. Burglary is stealing from a structure, like a house or business. I think that robbery is far worse. It is a face to face offense. It is for immediate money or something that will have a cash value. I joked that it is like the television commercial for J.G. Wentworth. 877-CASH-NOW. Face to face crimes have the potential of having a bad turn out. I think that we, as a nation need to have stricter punishments. It may not be a popular idea, but I do believe in capital punishment for heinous crimes. I believe in an eye for an eye. Until murderers can bring back their victims, they should be fine with losing their lives, too. What's fair is fair.

Define Wealth

I am a middle class person. My family works hard for every penny we make. I have no debt, but neither do I have extra money. Yet, I consider myself a wealthy woman. That is because I define wealth in a global sense. As I observe the world each day, I see many people with a lot of expensive things. Huge houses, fancy cars, blingy jewelry. Don't get me wrong. I like to have nice things, but there is a limit to what I will pay for them, even if I did have the money. Do people buy things just for the status. Sometimes I wonder, if a Mercedes logo was put onto a Hyundai, would people still buy it and claim it was the best car around. I have a Honda. It is safe and reliable and gets me where I have to go. As I help my son fix up the home he just bought, I see real wealth. The home needs a lot of work, which the entire family is helping him with, nail by nail. He doesn't have a mansion, but to him, his house is worth a million. He bought a house. He is turning it into a home. I define my wealth by the health and happiness of my family. When all said and done, the only thing that lives on as a testament to us all, is our reputation and no one can buy that. It is self created.

Drive Me Crazy

I consider myself to be a good driver. In all the years that I have been driving I have never received a traffic ticket. The only time my car was hit by another car, was when I was not even in it. I was parked at a shopping center and came back to find the damage. I attribute these statistics mainly to cautious, common sense driving and partially to luck. I have my routine when I drive. I am a middle lane driver and never go more than 9 miles above the speed limit. I have been told that the police will not pull you over if it is less than 10 miles above the limit. I abide by this theory and so far, so good. This morning, I drove a friend to the airport. He is what I would consider to be, a back seat driver. The trip started off by him telling me to make a left on red. Since it was 5:30 AM and no one was on the road, he considered this move to be legal. Of course I did not listen, but it seemed like an eternity until the light turned green so I could make the turn. Then he took off his seat belt. My car beeps if the front seat passenger disengages the seatbelt, so I didn't have to see what he did..... I heard it. After having the seat belt argument, it progressed to lane changing. I am not an impatient person. If a lane slows down for a minute, I go with the flow. I see no need to swerve in and out of lanes. What is the big deal if I get to my destination 4 minutes later? By the time I got him to the airport, my head was pounding and my hands were shaking. I told him that the next time I drive him anywhere, he might be riding in the trunk.

Everything Old

There is an old saying, "Everything old is new again". Life rejuvenates and perpetuates. The old standards find themselves being re worked into modern standards and most of the time people do not even realize it. My case in point, is the way we communicate with each other. The original method of long distance communication was Morse Code. Dot, Dot , Dash, interpreted by the person on the other end of his Morse Code machine, who knew the code. Then years down the line, the telex machine was invented. You sat in front of a large machine and typed your message in full. When you were done you hit a button that would transmit the message, to type into another telex machine. I remember using one of these contraptions as late as 1980. Of course the telephone was always the preferred method of communicating. Imagine, talking to a friend or loved, one hundreds of miles away and hearing their voice in real time. Before we knew it, along came cell phones. You can still hear the live voice, but now you can hear it from anywhere in the world. What freedom of speech! As soon as we all learned how to use our cells, texting became all the rage. The younger generation will have the strongest thumb muscles. I think we may even mutate into growing over sized thumbs if this keeps up. So now, if we really think about it, we are back 150 years ago. Typing to our friends and hitting the send button. I guess everything old is still new again.

UnReal

Years ago we had only 7 television channels and there was always something good to watch! Today some of us have up to 300 channels and complain that there is nothing good on TV. When I was young, we used to get the TV Guide delivered to our home. Every September, I anxiously awaited the Fall Issue. It was a double sized edition and it contained the listing of all the new television series. Each show had a small synopsis of cast, characters and what the show was about. Each station seemed to have the same plot but with different stars. There was always a new family type show, a new police show and a new teen type show. Today, America is all about "Reality". Every theme seems to have a reality show. Dancing, Singing, Traveling, Cops, etc. Even though these shows are promoted as "reality", how real are they. I think we are fooling ourselves into a false sense of reality. The worst offender is the "Real Housewives" series. For those of you have have watched this show, could you please tell me where they are hiding the housewives? Last time I looked, housewives did not wear gowns to go food shopping, nor did they have spa parties for a dozen friends. When I go food shopping I do not wear evening makeup and 6 inch heels. Sneakers and jeans, that's my outfit. The last time I had a girls night out, we went to have pizza, not to Mexico for a 5 day get away. I no longer watch these shows. I now live in reality by not watching reality.

Generations

I am a people watcher. I love to quietly observe human interactions. When my kids were young I used to take them to major league ball games. I never even looked at the playing field. I was too busy focusing on the people sitting around me. I was trying to figure out the dynamics of their relationships to each other. Were they family or friends or co workers. Was the young couple on a first date? What were they eating. And so on. Last night I was in a Chinese take out waiting for my order to be prepared. Working behind the counter was a boy about 11 years old. He must have been the owners son. A bright kid. Anyway.... in walked an elderly man of at least 75 years old. When the boy saw him, his face lit up. "I tried the puzzle you taught me and it worked" said the boy. The old man looked thrilled and said "I have another one for you". The man took a pencil and paper out of his pocket and walked behind the counter to stand next to the boy. He wrote out some sort of mathematical problem. In my mind I was thinking that this man must have been a Math teacher before he retired. The two of them discussed the math problem and the young boy asked many questions. After a few minutes the man's order was ready. He said to the boy, "work on the solution and I will see you next week". For some reason watching this exchange made me smile. Are we really ever too old to teach, or too young to learn?