Genius

 

(This is part 2 of Calvin Coolidge’s larger quote on Persistence.)

This week the musing is about genius. Genius is defined as: 1. extraordinary intellectual power especially as manifested in creative activity. 2.: a person endowed with transcendent mental superiority. specifically: a person with a very high IQ  Merriam-Webster https://www.merriam-webster.com › dictionary › genius

It has often been said, “Smart people learn from their mistakes; geniuses learn from other people’s mistakes.” By either definition, there are not many geniuses around.

 Coolidge said “unrewarded genius is almost a proverb”. Throughout history, there have been many examples of very smart people (often called wise men) who have spoken up and still been ignored. Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction”. A wise man’s ideas are only useful if they are accepted and put to good use. Some geniuses were shunned because of new and strange ideas. Some were ridiculed because they went against the social norm and even posed a threat to the perceived welfare of the economy. Albert Einstein (the one sticking out his tonge) was once asked what it was like to be the smartest man in the world. His reply was that if you really wanted to know you should go ask Nicola Tesla.

I would consider both geniuses. So why did Tesla die a poor man living in a run-down hotel? Many did not understand his genus. Others seemed to be threatened by it. Now there is no end of conspiracy theories around Tesla, but it was clear that his idea of free electricity for all did not sit well with the established tycoons. He ended up poor partly because he did not want to control the power grid but had a vision of sharing it with all. Others decided to either ignore his wisdom, or misuse it.

Sometimes genius is wasted on terrible people. Without throwing and pasts geniuses under the bus, I can say that many geniuses from the past were less than nice with anyone who disagreed with them. Edison, Newton, and Churchill often come to mind.

So how can we not waste genius? First we need to determine if it is God’s wisdom or man’s wisdom. "But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere." James 3:17 (NIV)

Once we find it, we need to listen and apply it. Enter, persistence and determination from the quote. Genius that is hidden or not heeded is unrewarded and useless.

  “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”  - Calvin Coolidge

Talent

I recently ran across a set of great quotes from Calvin Coolidge, the 30^th President of the United States. This time I won’t bother you with the convoluted trail that lead me to him. He rose to notoriety as Governor of Massachusetts during his cool handling of the Boston Police Officer’s Strike.  His stance during the strike probably lead to the surprise nomination of the Republican National Convention  to be Warren G. Harding’s Vice Presidential candidate. After Harding’s sudden death he was sworn in as President. He was known as keen mind and a cool head.  In fact in 1924, his reelection slogan was “Keep Cool with Coolidge”. In the same year he passed the Indian Citizenship Act, granting Native Americans citizenship. He worked hard to improve their treatment and condition.

He was known as a man of few words. While he was President Harding’s Vice President, a society matron once said at a dinner party, "Mr. Vice President, I made a bet with my friends that I could get you to say at least three words this evening." Coolidge fixed a steely glare on her and said: "You lose." https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-life-and-presidency-of-calvin-coolidge

 

In the next few weeks I plan to muse about the three words, Talent, Genius, and Education. This week is talent. Every so often I hear a high school student say “I’ve got skills”. The question I usually ask is “But do you have the character to use those skills?” Coolidge said, “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Think about your high school yearbook. Almost every class votes on standout students. It could be most best smile or best dresser. Invariably, there will be something about most talented, or most likely to succeed. But where are they now. Most did not really stand out. Some ended up mediocre; some even failed miserably. I can’t even count the athletes who claimed they will be the greatest and then never even finished college. I do see many “average guys” and “average ladies” who are tearing it up out there. So talent does not automatically equate to success.

Even Jesus told a parable about it. Yes, I know that the “talent” He mentions in Matthew 25:14-30, is technically about money, but the same principle applies. Without hard work (persistence as Coolidge notes) is a huge factor. If we bury our talent in the ground and don’t practice it, it will gain nothing. Stay with it and don’t quit. In the words of Coolidge, Press On!

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”  - Calvin Coolidge

Pauses

 A pause according to the Oxford Dictionary, means to interrupt action or speech briefly. An expected pause can be great. It gives us a chance to catch our breath and recalculate. It is that button on the DVR so we can take a bathroom break. God paused (rested) after 6 days of creation to just take it all in. It is what gives us our model of resting during the week. Pauses can help us focus on the next step. Unexpected pauses can seem terrible. For many years I helped my father-in-law work on cars in his garage. When you are expecting something to happen, a pause can cause great anxiety. It could be a starter that hesitates, a device that isn’t starting up, or a machine that stops for a second or two, that click of the solenoid and then nothing.  In the middle of a job, it can be downright scary.

Easter was last week. It is often called The Great Pause. It was a screeching halt to what the disciples thought was to be the Kingdom of God on Earth. Imagine the looks of fear and confusion, the sadness and despair. Now to be honest, they hadn’t been listening properly, but still, the silence must have been deafening. Even though the disciples wouldn’t have chosen it this way, I think it was necessary to give them time to process what Jesus really said. They had time to search the scriptures, to review His words in their minds. Soon they would be fully convinced and literally turn the world upside-down.

Be thankful for pauses. They give us time to reflect and enjoy life. Expected or unexpected, they are part of life’s rhythm. Just like in music, pauses can magnify the notes or events that follow. Without them, it would be a solid droning sound.

“The pause is as important as the note” — Truman Fische

 

"The Breath Between: A Poem on the Power of Pause"

I pause, I breathe, I come to rest,

A moment to reflect on what is best,

To gather my thoughts, to find my way,

Before I venture forth into the fray.

I signal the end, the finality,

Of a thought, a sentence, a reality,

I give it weight, I make it clear,

That this is it, the end is here.

I bring closure to the words we speak,

I give them shape, I make them complete,

I am the punctuation mark of pause,

The moment of silence, the gentle applause.

I'm a moment of calm, a moment of peace,

A chance to reflect, to ponder, to seize,

I help you to breathe, to take a break,

To find your center, to be awake.

So embrace me, use me, let me be,

The punctuation mark of your destiny,

For I am more than just a simple dot,

I am the full stop, the final thought.

 Camvickbee  

https://poetizer.com/poem/1991879238

Weeds

 

Last week I was weeding around the house. For some reason, the dandelions are especially plentiful this year. I hate using any kind of weed killers because I want to help any butterflies that come along, but I must balance that with the fact that my wife does not want our yard to look like we live in a backwoods village somewhere. I'm not sure where that even is, but still, I try to avoid it. So I weed. I scrape them out of cracks. I try to pull them up by the roots. And for the most part, I keep a fairly clean lawn & garden area. Still, It got me thinking. What is a weed anyway? A quick search gave me these quotes.

• ·       A weed is but an unloved flower" - Ella Wheeler Wilcox
• ·       "Weeds are nature's graffiti" - J.L.W. Brooks
• ·       "What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered" - Ralph Waldo Emerson
• ·       "A weed is just a plant that's determined to be where it's not wanted." – Unattributed

I recently found out that I can feed dandelions to my bearded dragon. I tried a few, and he loved them. So just like that, dandelions went from a hated yard weed to a edible flower cultivated in a pot for one of my animals. In this case, it was just a flower in the wrong location. Honestly, they are pretty, and the early spring pollinators can't get enough. Could it be that they have received a bad rap?

Have you ever felt like a weed? I have. Maybe you work with a nice group of people but you don’t feel part of the group. Maybe you think differently than everyone around you and feel kept on the outside. Don’t dismay, the inner circle isn’t all it’s cracked up to be anyway. Possibly someone has told you “you’re just not a fit”.

It’s very possible you are just the right person in the wrong place. I remember being told “it’s just not a fit” at one of my teaching positions. It’s discouraging, demoralizing, and depressing. Yet shortly after I went to another school who hired me and thought I was a real blessing.

I think in the wrong place at the wrong time, any decent flower could be a weed. In the right place, at the right time, weeds turn into a wildflower garden. Trust God to put you in the right place, and when you get there flourish. Even weeds can be beautiful.

“If you see a dandelion as a weed, you’ll spray it. If you see it as a flower, you’ll draw it close, turn it this way and that, and become lost in the colossal burst of slender golden petals that spew sunshine into the darkest of souls. And so, how many things have we sprayed that could have illuminated our souls if we would have let them be more than what we let them be?” ― Craig D. Lounsbrough

Help My Unbelief

In Mark chapter 9 a man brings his son possessed with an evil spirit to Jesus. He said that His disciples had not been able to cast it out. After another convulsive spell and a short conversation about how long it had been happening, Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” The man’s immediate response was, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

How can someone believe and yet have unbelief? When I was younger, this really used to confuse me. I thought that, well, you either believe or you don’t. It wasn’t until I was having a conversation with one of my sons that it started to make sense. We were discussing about God providing a need that mostly concerned him. I mentioned that God had always taken care of us and that I wasn’t too worried about it. We have always tried to share with our kids how God has provided through the years. He confided that he knew that God took care of my wife and I, but that he wasn’t sure He would do it for him.  

I think that was where this man was. He had seen, or at least heard about all the healings that Jesus had done. Maybe he was already convinced that He was the Messiah. He believed that he could; I think the unbelief was that he wasn’t sure that Jesus would do it for him personally.

One of the greatest walls our children will face is whether they believe in God because we told them, or because they have experience Him themselves. It’s not new. Jacob had to make the transition from the “God of my father” to calling Him “Lord”.

So how does one make this transition? It begins with a small step of faith. As we draw closer to God and walk daily with Him, He draws near to us. Our faith grows. As we struggle through trials, we learn to trust more. As we experience God’s provision, He becomes more personal to us. It doesn’t happen overnight, but before you know it, things that you thought were insurmountable, now don’t seem so big. He helps our unbelief.

 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrews 11:6

Please God, Not Today!

 

Have you ever gotten to the point where you wanted to say, “Not today God, please not today.”? It’s when stuff keeps coming at you, a never-ending stream of “this broke”, “that doesn’t work”, and “I can’t find it anywhere”. You feel you’re at your wit’s end and one more thing will break you beyond repair. I think we’ve all been there.

I was there just last week. What I really wanted to do was to just crawl into bed and turn out the lights. Fortunately I don’t stay there long. Some of it is just my personality. I don’t stay depressed for long. Some of it is having a faithful wife and companion at my side to help pick me up. But mostly it’s is the memory of the many time that God has been faithful in the past.

I’m no spiritual giant by any means. But I have learned a few things that help sustain me in the tough times.  Some are from experiences; some are from advice of trusted friends. But the most encouraging words come from God himself.

1. God is Faithful - "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22-23

2. God is in Control - "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

3. God has Our Back – “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” I Corinthians 10:13

"Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken." Psalm 55:22

4. God Want The Best For You - "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

5. God Know What it Means to Suffer – “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:15-16

 

Other Helpful hints:

1. Eat wisely, Eat healthy. Good food means a healthy body. Enjoy dessert, but don’t overdo it!

2. Know your body – get rest you need, even if you need to leave things unfinished fro a day.

3. Get out and be active. Exercise is not only good for the body, it’s good for the mind.

4. Find someone else to help. You will be surprised how it will bring things into perspective.

5. Talk with a trusted friend. Many times a solution will come to us while we are talking it through.

Be encouraged! God is with you in the good times and the bad times. If we trust in Him, He will be faithful!

A Better Way

 

We have five children. We have nine grandchildren. Although I teach high school, I’m still fascinated with toddlers and lower elementary. Now don’t get me wrong, I do not want to teach at that level. I don’t think I have the energy to keep that up continually. I just like observing.

My wife has a gift of helping and ministering to younger mothers. She has many friends at church with children in the elementary ages. There are many mothers of my junior high students or my fellow teachers that also have younger elementary children. I have been watching. There is one young mother of three that has intrigued me. She has quite a mix of intelligence, energy and cuteness on her hands. But it is the way that she corrects and redirects them that fascinates me. Well, fascinates me and causes me to reflect inwardly.

I like to think I keep an organized & orderly classroom. But sometimes you have admit that even though things seem to be going well, there may be a better way. It’s one of the curses on teachers; you really are never good enough. There is always room for improvement.

In classroom discipline, I tend to get right to it. You might hear, “Please stop.” or, "Are you finished so we can go on?”.  It works, but it sometime lacks that outward compassion element. It’s something I’ve been working on. I’m sure we’ve all seen lists and memes that help to give better responses. A teacher named Mr. Mizrahi has a list. Here are just a few:

·         Let’s remember gentle hands     (“No Hitting” “Stop Fighting”)  

·         Outside is a good place for being loud     (No Shouting Inside the House!)  

·         Let’s try to breathe through these yucky feelings    (Calm Down, Stop Crying, No Whining)  

·         Let’s use kind words, please     (Don’t say that, don’t talk like that)  

·         Shoes are for your feet, remember?   (Stop throwing your shoes around the house)  

https://mrmizrahi.blog/2021/01/21/positive-phrases-to-use-instead-of-stop-no-dont/

These are all great, but sometimes they are hard to remember in the moment. It takes a lot of practice to break bad habits. That’s why my observations with this mother were so amazing. It caught my attention so captivatingly that I keep coming back to them.

I remember the first time I saw her struggling to get her child, the one with unlimited energy, to stand still so she could get done whatever she was doing. (I believe she was putting a jacket on. No one would have faulted this mother for saying, “Hold still!”. Instead I heard, I really appreciate your energy, but now it’s time to help mom do what she needs to do.” The child stopped and held still so mom could adjust their jacket. What a kind way to correct & redirect! I saw many more examples like this. It challenged me to look for better ways to kindly redirect in my classroom, especially with the 7^th graders. Now, don’t be deceived; I am still a work in progress. But I do hear myself giving more compliments while I’m correcting. Who’d a thought you could teach an old dog new tricks? Never keep looking for a better way. They are out there!