Just like Forest Gump said: “Stupid is as stupid does”. A few months ago I put a sticky on my virtual desktop that said: “It’s easy to appreciate gifted, it’s tough to appreciate stupid”. It was written hastily while on a tirade over one thing or another. You see, gifted people are subject to tirades.

I think in fact it was brought on by a round of golf. I have a buddy that lives in our little resort community. He and I have been playing an early round of golf together for over a year now. We have known each other for years as I was music director at a church he pastored. We talk shit on the golf course and it is probably the only free space on the planet where he can loose his clerical robes and say fuck when he shanks the ball. Somehow a neighbor fellow has infused himself into our game. He is this oafish little man, definitely one of the ungifted. It pisses me off every time I go to meet my buddy for a round and this roustabout is waiting on the tee.

Back to my sticky note. When I put it on the desktop, I knew that it was incomplete. It was an equation waiting for a sum, the first half of a proposition without a resolution. I have tried a few times to complete the note and add the all important second half but have failed each time. For weeks now just: “It’s easy to appreciate gifted, it’s tough to appreciate stupid” has stared blankly at me.

Until just now.

It’s easy to appreciate gifted. It’s tough to appreciate stupid. Since there are far more idiots than geniuses it would be good to learn to appreciate them.

Oh, and maybe it would be a good idea to stop thinking of everyone as an idiot, it makes you sound like….well…an idiot.