I am reminded all the time that
I'm really not that smart . . .
I'm reading this book, for instance, that I picked up at the bookstore because it looked charming and had spent a big chunk of its life on the bestseller list. Which means it was popular, right? Lots of people have read it?
But I feel a bit like I have finagled an invitation to an esoteric dinner party for bookish geniuses where I have somehow managed to BS my way through the appetizers, but can't avoid the panicked feeling that there is still the main course to come. By dessert I will be hanging by my fingernails.
The bouncer is eying me suspiciously, and I am but a single recondite allusion from being asked to leave.
I feel my grasp of abstruse German philosophy is suddenly inadequate, even though until now I had not necessarily considered myself to be lacking in that particular area. I may need a dictionary just to write this review.
It's still enormously enjoyable, of course, but sort of in the way that your first time swimming in the deep-end is -- that reckless yet heady moment where you yell "Look Mom!" while flailing your limbs and simultaneously hoping you can keep your chin above the water long enough for her to put down her magazine. You don't want to get too far from the wall.
Hannah was telling me the other day that a doctor recently asked her when she first realized she was smarter than her teachers, and she immediately replied, "First grade."
"Really?!" I asked. I was impressed. Those kinds of thoughts had not occurred to me until at least 7th grade, which only goes to show that I am usually not the smartest person in the room, even in my own house.
(I am not tooting my own horn; for the record, I have encountered a few truly questionable teachers over the years, in classes where roughly 1/2 the students had the intellectual upper hand over the instructor.)
Would I recommend the book? Absolutely!
Especially if you are smarter than I am. And I once had an adorable 5 year old boy look straight at me and deadpan: "You're not the smartest Susan I know." (He was so cute, I couldn't even hold it against him.)
So I must not be too far above average.
Witness the fact, for instance,
that it is now December 15
and my packages are not yet mailed . . .
AGAIN. No one of even average intelligence -- including Miss Gibson, my 10th grade Social Studies teacher -- would make that kind of mistake year after year.
My own mother explained to me recently (looking up from her magazine -- she was busy relaxing) that if one finishes one's Christmas preparations in October, one is able to just sit back and enjoy the wonders of the holiday season. A revolutionary philosophical idea that I had not previously considered, or had at least failed to grasp. Obviously.
Remember this picture? It was taken after my Christmas post office pilgrimage last year (yes, that's the receipt -- I have A LOT to mail) . . .
But hold on . . . I think that was on December 18!
Hooray! There's still time to improve!
Baby steps, friends. Baby steps.
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6 comments:
I really tried to read "The Elegance of the Hedgehog." I really tried, but it just didn't seem to flow or hold my attention. I finally gave up and donated it to our local library. I think I was in high school before I figured out I was smarter than some of my teachers. Oh well...
"Enjoy" and "holiday" don't connect too well in my scrambled life. Good luck storming the Post Office! (It'll take a miracle)
Hahahaha! At least I understand allusions to "The Princess Bride". All is not lost, Leenie.
I didn't have nearly as much to mail as you, but I am looking forward to the day when the only thing I'll need to be mailing is your family's ornaments and maybe one other set of gifts. I hope my ornaments arrived safely...
I had one of those smarter-than-the-teacher moments in college, when my piano teacher told me there was no way to conduct 6/8 time in 6 - it can only be done in 2. Yeah, I had a hard time in her class for the rest of the semester.
Keep going on that book. I had the same feeling you have during the first half, but by the end I absolutely loved it. I hope you do a sequel post!
Mailing? Can't I do that in January when the lines at the PO are shorter?
Hmmm... for sure, I know you're by far my literary superior, so maybe I'm not even smart enough to realize how dumb I am. Anyway it's been awhile since I read The Elegance of the Hedgehog, but I loved it from the get-go. It's one of the very few books of recent years that I've reread just to enjoy the writing. But I do have the helpful ability to simply ignore stuff I don't understand, and German philosophers are right up there...
I haven't yet gotten to the part of buying, let alone mailing, gifts for far away loved ones. So you're way ahead of me! Luckily, my kids will be here for Christmas -- whew!
I would have probably enjoyed that book as a teen, lol. I seem to have lost some IQ points after giving birth...and with every passing year....
My aunt goes Christmas shopping in January. She gets it completely done in that month. I've had spiders in my gifts from her, as she wraps in February, and they sit til December. Take your book to the post office, to read while you wait!
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