This picture is a great segway for this… well, I think it’s turning into a series of posts about knowledge. I mentioned in the first post on the topic that I often find myself acting in a snobbish manner. I do admit that the temptation to call my husband stupid is almost too much to bear at times. But when my cousins would beat me in just about every academic endeavor throughout my school years (even if by just a few percentage points), I would constantly remind them how smart I was in social situations… and I would of course insinuate that they lacked those percentage points in “street smarts."
And then there was German. And Spanish. And Portuguese. And then I met Cesar’s family and attempted discussions… about just about anything. And I now can say that I know what it is like to be on the receiving end of stupid. Cesar has constantly looked at me in "that” way, not believing that I didn’t know the meaning to such and such a word. I could remind him that I have vocabulary lists I would love for him to learn, but that would be counterproductive. And when I lived in Brazil for those seven months, when I needed to ask a nine year old to light the stove for me because the only lighters I’d ever used were the long ones you use on a grill. When I had to learn how to wash my clothes, and when the food I cook so often in the USA somehow never turned out the same, and sometimes turned out sticky or burnt. When I am sitting helpless with my daughter, not knowing what is happening in our bodies to make them do such strange things, and the in-laws are all blaming it on the weather, that it couldn’t possibly be the water because the well is artisan. When my twelve year old nephews have to get the horses and saddle them for me and then tell me how to ride (or more, lead my horse with a rope). It is, to say the least, humbling. When I am putting together an invoice and I have no idea what certain tools or parts of the house are (in my own language), when prices change or equipment breaks. When my daughter comes to me and I don’t know how to answer her question in an age- appropriate manner and am stammering, “um, well, you see…. The water freezes in the clouds and falls from the sky as snow.” I am no longer as smart as I would love to imagine.
I confess, I constantly remind Cesar at just how intelligent I am. I love to create new menu items that he loves (to beat even the Brazilians at their own recipes), to design a website that leaves him speechless, to bring out my degrees, to speak the few words I know or sing in Hindi or German.
But I am constantly reminded that nobody is smart all the time. And most (I am hesitant to say all) people are smart in ways that others are not. I do have talents in a variety of fields. But I would not say I am the best in any of those fields and the variety is not all-inclusive.
It is easy to label idiocy, the call people and their ideas ridiculous. As I look through the homeschooling materials and try to find something to fit our family and my daughter, I am suddenly awake to each and every weakness in my own mind. I am also very aware to the labels that litter our Facebook pages and the comments on the articles where condescending comments are in the majority.
Why am I writing and writing and not shutting up about this whole smart stupid thing? Because it’s so easy to be condescending and negative, to tear one another down. But here’s the point: The book of Proverbs talks A LOT about knowledge and wisdom. And most of the time the conclusion is that the person who flaunts their knowledge in a proud manner and uses it to tear others down is most often the fool who knows the least. Knowledge– pure, wonderful, I want it knowledge– is CONSTRUCTIVE. It is useful. It has purpose. It is necessary even. But the only thing that knowledge should be breaking down are the barriers that keep us from God and from each other.
So I say now to myself, Amber, stop being stupid. Don’t play the fool. Take your knowledge, grow in it, and be wise, not haughty. Take that learning, those studies– they come more easily to some than others, but if you took the time and strength to learn… why not take more time and strength to APPLY.