You probably shouldn't bother reading this post. It's mostly an exercise in thinking out loud with an unhealthy dose of navel gazing. Best you just move on 'cause there's nothing to see here.
At what was perhaps the lowest point in my professional career a colleague told me he thought my abrupt and unceremonious dismissal from the faculty was appropriate. Though it had nothing to do with the stated reasons for my getting sacked he said he thought I was intellectually lazy and far too populous to be teaching at the college level. At the time I didn't take either of those assessments seriously. I've never been accused of being or thought myself lazy, and I'm glad to own the label populous, especially if its antonym is intellectually snobbish.
This morning in anticipation of a class I *may* be teaching in the spring I did some reading in a theology text I have from my days at Talbot Seminary. I'd forgotten how dense some of that stuff is and I could only manage three chapters before my brain was close to overheating. And that's what made me think back to what that colleague said. I still think he was wrong; I'm not intellectually lazy, I just have a fairly modest CPU. What he took as "won't" was really just "can't." He'd read the book I had in front of me at Starbuck's this morning in two sittings and consider it introductory or even simplistic.
I'm glad we have really smart people in the world. Neil and Crystal host our small group, graciously opening their beautiful home to us every Monday evening. He's a neurosurgeon, which means that among other procedures he opens up peoples' skulls and pokes around in their brains. If I ever need brain surgery I want someone like Neil who is crazy smart! Andrew, who was in our last small group, is post-doc at the U of O doing research in bio-mechanical engineering. I don't even know what that means (he tried to explain it to me once) but he went to Switzerland to use their very high-tech laser to do something to genes...I think. Andrew's the kind of guy who will help find a cure for cancer, or if we're really lucky, figure out why women with a weight problem wear yoga pants in public.
I'm old enough to have accepted I'm not in that category and don't really want to be. If, in that colleague's opinion, that disqualifies me from being on the faculty of a small Bible college I'm good with it. (Though I don't think it did/does and count my work there as some of the best I did over 42 years of ministry.)
And if it's a choice between being populous (which in this context means effective in communicating with ordinary people) and being an intellectual standout I'll take the former in a heartbeat. NO contest!
The people are the best part.
Plus, us ordinary people outnumber the brainiacs ten to one.
What he said clearly stung or it wouldn't still be in my head.
Interestingly, he and I have had quite a bit of contact since that conversation 20 years ago and almost all of them have been very congenial. Why? Because he hasn't a clue what effect his words had on me. For him it was just a matter-of-fact assessment in the same category as "The Cleveland Browns can't play at the level of an NFL team." So he comes up to me with a smile on his face and asks how things are going as though that conversation never happened. Clueless.
Sometimes really smart people have really limited social skills and awareness.
OK, it's time for me to go back to reading that book. I think my brain has recovered to the point where I can handle another chapter or two. After that it will take at least 24 hours to recover. In between I'll spend time surfing old car sites on the internet, watch some British detective shows, and if the rain takes a break I'll clean the goat barn. Pretty populous stuff.
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