Posted by:
exminion
(
)
Date: January 01, 2019 04:20AM
My parents were both brilliant!
Before Google, I could go to my father with any question, and he could answer it! He was a professor at an Ivy League university, and was also well-traveled.
My mother was a voracious reader, and had a photographic memory.
My parents had enough wisdom to deduce that the church wasn't true, but they both were from GA families, and decided to not be strict with religion. They didn't go to the temple, or wear garments, or pray over every meal, and we could play on Sundays. They did pay tithing, and Mom was RS and Primary president. Dad taught an intellectual, liberal-Mormon gospel doctrines class, which was popular with the University students--until they were divided into their own student ward.
Don't let arrogance, or large vocabulary or an English accent fool you into thinking someone had a potent mind. My mother used to watch William Buckley on TV, just to keep up with the students and professors and everyone else. I remember one night, Buckley was in fine form, discussing some complex political issue that was way over my head, and Mom and I looked at each other blankly, and she said, "I didn't understand a word he said." I said, "Me, neither." We laughed.
A potent mind knows its limitations, and is always open to knew ideas.
Thank you, Tevai, for including Mel Brooks! Comedians are the greatest!
Emerson, Mark Twain, Wordsworth. I think of Sagan, and Kenneth Clark, and Mr. Rodgers more as "educators."
Teachers are underrated.