wandering down the rabbit hole
Welcome or maybe it is welcome back my sassy readers. Things have been a little slow on the viewing front. At the end (or was it the beginning?) of the year, I asked for your thoughts regarding what you’d like to read about. https://sassaleeyours.com/resolutions-a-set-up-for-failure/
Crickets!
Yep, that’s what I got. But that’s o.k. I can deal. It just means that it is writers’ choice this week.
let’s talk about genius
It seems like every time that I encounter an individual doing something remarkable (and most importantly unexpected) I am plagued with the thought of, “where did that come from?”
If you really want to take it back we could look at the bible and the obstacles so many overcame. Jesus-goes without saying, David (bet Goliath was shocked), Samson and that massive jawbone…well that would certainly be a good start and yet I am still amazed.
You know I like a good lesson and definition so lets begin there.
Ahh- there it is.
just to name a few
Leonardo Da Vinci always is first in my mind. A true Renaissance man in every sense of the word. He lived in a time where there was no running water, no real documented science. And although painting was his best artistry he was reknowned as draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. He excelled at all. According to https://www.mos.org/leonardo/biography he also studied and then produced studies including nature, flying machines, geometry, mechanics, municipal construction, canals and architecture (designing everything from churches to fortresses). His studies from this period contain designs for advanced weapons, including a tank and other war vehicles, various combat devices, and even submarines. And amidst all of this he created some of our first anatomical drawings which are still used today. Oh, and there was that winsome smiling beauty, The Mona Lisa.
He was raised by his father and apprenticed out to a local painter. Leonardo surpassed him in skill by the time he was a teenager…Where did the magic come from?
Van Gogh came along about 400 years later. His genius was recognized posthumously. Tortured by his own thoughts and the despair he saw around himself, he gave away all meager belongings in an effort to bring to light the sufferings of so many. He was basically tossed from the church for being “too liberal” in his Christianity. This inspired him to begin painting in earnest to show the plights of the downtrodden. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vincent-van-Gogh
the count goes on
Albert Einstein, thought to have mental disabilities as a child. Helen Keller whose accomplishments would seem inversely proportional to her disabilities. https://www.havefunwithhistory.com/helen-keller-accomplishments/
- First deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor’s degree. …
- Authored the famous autobiography “The Story of My Life” …
- Traveled as a lecturer, advocating for people with disabilities. …
- Supported women’s rights, pacifism, and civil rights. …
- Co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Abraham Lincoln grew up in a one room cabin, had 1 year of formal education and went on to self teach, become an attorney and president of the U.S. We still remember and use a few of his quotes and speeches to this day. (Even if we don’t necessarily heed them)
a new day and century…
Education isn’t the only obstacles our heroes and genius face. They face prejudice for various reasons, poverty, abuse and the simple lack of expectation. Have you ever heard the term, a product of their environment? That means that a person statistically will learn and be what they see and in so many instances are taught by action. And so we come full circle.
“rising above your raising”
Many times in the south you may hear the phrase, don’t get above your raisin’. That generally is a warning that you are headed down the wrong pathway and getting ahead of yourself. That may be good advice in some instances but in others it is the last thing that person may need.
These people are the genius that prompt so much thought from me. The ones that rise above their raising. I see so many that it would seem that the path of least resistance would be to give in. Give in to the drugs, the gangs, the naysayers. And it doesn’t have to be as drastic as something chemical like the drugs or physical like the gangs. I’m thinking about the ones who never have been given the expectation of …more. There is more out there than this. Where do they get that inkling? That light that tells them there is more, they can be more.
What voice in their heads do they hear and where does it come from that says…you can do this. And then they do.
heroes great and small
Alexander Graham Bell, Maya Angelou, Steve Jobs, the kid that throws a basketball at a hoop with no net repeatedly or the local chapter of girl scouts that begin with selling cookies to fund and form their ideas. This is where genius lives. In the soul, the heart, the minds and some day, the dreams in a world of no expectations.
Coming from you now, a gal that never takes no for an answer.
Sassaleeyours…