We have SMART:
Phones
Cars
Homes
Appliances
Watches
Furniture
Televisions
Computers
Boards
Cities
Water
Meters
Many more about which I am unaware since I am not smart..
We have Marcus Smart, an excellent basketball player, who is soooooooo SMART he just signed a multi-million basketball contract probably because he is Smart but, also, perhaps, because he surrounds, himself with SMART FOLKS which, of course, makes him SMART well beyond his family name. This did not happen by chance. We see Mr. Smart play the game. What we don’t see is the behind the scenes work which is all it is, work (maynard g. krebs) to us but for Mr. Smart it is passion, heart, desire, ambition, sacrifice, determination, resiliency and much more. We don’t want to hear that. We want to see the finished product and to be entertained for an hour or two.
I would chuckle when I heard about a “One Person Concert” coming to the sold out stadium. One person, no way, Hundreds of folks behind the scenes: musicians, dancers, lighting, sound, electronics, caterers, travel mangers, make-up, business folks, drivers, crews of all sorts and many other people responsible to make it appear as advertised: One Person Show. We don’t care about all that we just want to see the show and be entertained for a couple of hours.
It’s like Thanksgiving Dinner. The hours of shopping, storing, prepping blended with 6-7 hours of cooking is all gone in about an hour when everyone is ready for a nap since Turkey has stuff in it, maybe natural maybe not, that makes us sleepy. Fact or Myth. Who knows. It is expected so it happens.
SMART People do not have all the answers but they know where to go to get the answers.
Example: Reference Librarians. They must wear ear plugs (not buds) to keep all that information is their brains. Pick a topic, ask a Reference Liberian and you will be given resources you never knew existed.
We have all this SMART stuff, but, sad to say, we have stupid people. Yeah, I’m in the group. At least I admit it. Will you?
When I was a kid, My Dad, brother and I were in the yard cutting down branches from trees. We tied the pieces with twine and placed them at curbside for pick-up on trash day.
Halfway through our chores we ran out of twine so Dad asked me to go see Mr. Kroll at the hardware store and buy a spool of twine, which I did.
Upon returning home Dad asked for the twine. I took the twine in hand and proceeded to tear away the protective plastic covering exposing the entire ball of twine as it unfurled right there. I did not know to keep the twine in the plastic covering so that it could be easily cut into a desired length. That was as simple task complicated by a stupid person, me. Dad said; “Geez, they teach you everything is school except how to live, exist and function in the real world. Not much has changed since then. In fact it has worsened with all the SMART stuff out there.
Instead of learning Life Skills through work, play, responsibility, accountability and consequences we use “experts” in everything to address, not solve, reduce or eliminate the concerns. We are offered resources, available on-line using your SMART stuff, instead of speaking with a Reference Librarian type person, which is a free service paid for by us and small in economic costs compared to hourly rates of the experts.
When things are constantly done for us (enabling not empowering) learning does not take place. Why? Because we learn from mistakes. Don’t touch the hot stove. I’ll show you. OUCH. I won’t be doing that again. As life progresses WE make it more complicated than it actually is by trying to be smart when we are not prepared since we did not learn how to do it the proper way. It’s only a mistake when we don’t learn from our mistakes which we, guaranteed, will make.
Don’t say your smart. Show you are smart.
Keep It Simple – Keep It Real
POWER UP YOUR POWER ‘CAUSE THE POWER IS IN YOU
Marty
hamp73@gmail.com
Keep It Simple - Keep It Real 