Allow me to start with a question and please take a few seconds to think about it. How many geniuses do you know? I am sure a few are coming up in your mind. I can think of a few. but will make mention of only two that really stand out for me. There is Benjamin Franklin, who was credited for discovering electricity in the 1700’s. He did it with his kite experiment, where he flew a kite with a metal key tied to the string during a thunderstorm. Imagine that! Even though it was in the 1700s, I only recently read about it, it is still mind-blowing how incredible his creativity was. What a great genius he must have been!
Then there is Alexander Graham Bell, whom I am sure everybody knows of. He was the inventor of the telephone, the apparatus transmitting vocal or other sounds, telegraphically causing electrical undulations. How incredible and genius is that? Think about it, up until today, I can take my phone and text someone on the other side of the world and that person receives the message in a split second. How far have we not come since Alexander Graham Bell’s invention? Imagine, transmitting sounds telegraphically sounds crazy, yet it is remarkably true. Just thinking about sending a fax from one place to another was amazing and now we hardly use faxes, but e-mails and other modern forms of transmission. I am now 52 and I tell you that all these wonderful inventions are still mind-blowing to me, not even to mention how aeroplanes stay in the air and heavy ships float on water. We have washing machines that we can programme and hence no longer a day spent at the river doing washing like in the olden days. Yes, I know it is all about science, but to me it remains genius.
When I am asked about geniuses, I think of the things described above. However, when you ask a young child the same question, the response will be different. We have a 6-year-old granddaughter, and her mother asked her who is the cleverest person she knows. She responded off course with her hero, her dad, being on top of the list, but then mentioned that if he does not know something then she can ask her grandfather because no one is as clever as him. So, a child’s perspective is based on what they can see and experience around them at their age. To them a mom is a genius for being able to in one day, work, cook, clean, paint, help with homework and still play with them.
Reading back about Benjamin Franklin and the like, is what I base my perception on at my age of a typical genius. To a child though, it is about pressing a switch and the electricity is just on, or the fact that using the cell phone is a part of life, without really understanding the depth of the invention and how it has changed our lives. So, perception and perspective changes as we grow from being a child to an adult, based on an increase in knowledge and our own experiences.
Looking at the online Oxford dictionary, the definition of a genius is as follows: “exceptional intellectual or creative power or other natural ability….an exceptional, intelligent person or one with exceptional skills in a particular area of activity.”
How many times did Benjamin Franklin and the like try before they reached success? It must have taken a lot of creativity, patience, dedication, trial, and error with difficulties. They however did not give up and hence the taste of success that we still benefit from today.
You might be thinking already where I am going with this and how it relates to the topic of this article? Stay with me and keep a look out for Part 2 of Like Yourself, as there is so much more coming.
Love in Christ
Princess K