Did You See That?

 

When Ter and I were last at the mall, I noticed a car in the parking lot. It stood by itself in a space at the end of the row and was absolutely nothing to get excited about, except that it sported the name and website address of a business I’d not heard of before.

It was still there when we emerged with our purchases. As we passed it en route to the Tiguan, I glanced once more at the website address and remarked to Ter: “I wonder what the Metaphysical Academy is all about.”

“I was just wondering the same thing,” she replied.

“Then you saw it too?”

She nodded. “Yup.”

“That’s a relief,” I said. “That means the car is actually here, in this dimension.”

“Or we’re there, in that dimension,” she countered.

“As in we saw it but the space is empty to everyone else?”

“Sure,” she allowed, still walking. “If you think you see it, it’s there. If you don’t, it’s not.”

“Or,” I suggested, “it could be sitting in another dimension and we only saw it because we passed through the divide.”

She laughed. “And the light was coming from a certain direction.”

We kept walking, but neither of us glanced back. From that angle, there was no guarantee ...

Intelligence

 

I adore Nick Rhodes. He’s not my favourite member of Duran Duran—that honour belongs to the father of my unborn children—but in truth I would adore Nick even if he wasn’t in the band. I find him alternately insightful and hilarious. It’s been clear from the beginning that he’s highly intelligent ... but on finding this quote, I was initially compelled to disagree with him.

At first glance, I’d have said that intelligence is often too easily insulted. Intelligence is the scorekeeper, the entity who judges status and determines the hierarchy. Intelligence, if given any authority, can become, depending on one’s nature, nurturing, condescending, patronizing, oppressive, suppressive or, at worst, despotic.

Unless he’s referring to emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is less about being right or being in control than it is about being open-minded and accepting of other opinions. Emotional intelligence allows for debate between opposing views, and for proponents of either side to remain friends in the event of a draw. Emotional intelligence ensures that criticism, whether given or received, is less crushing than constructive.

I know intelligent people who wield their smarts like a weapon designed to show their superiority. I know people whose intelligence is applied to fostering their own poor self-esteem. I also know intelligent people who think of themselves less (rather than less of themselves) than they think of others. In any of those categories, only one seems to fit the notion of intelligence being insulted.

So now I think Nick might be right. Intelligence itself is actually a neutral force. Neither proud nor humble, intelligence does not tell us how or where to use it. I’ve been confusing intelligence with ego!

D-oh!

Make One Mistake ...

As the entire galaxy knows, I’ve been a Flyer fan for forty-plus years. I watched Kate Smith sing “God Bless America” live at their home games during the Stanley Cup playoffs. I thought it was hilarious that this woman, this unblemished model of manners and conservative ideals, was a good luck charm for the Broad Street Bullies. By then she was an icon, a legend lauded—even decorated—for her work raising funds to aid the US war effort during WWII. She was up there on the pedestal with motherhood and apple pie, representing America in all her fine, upstanding, life-liberty-and-justice-for-all glory. Up until the last time the team made the playoffs, she was posthumously present at home games, belting out a duet with current anthem singer, Lauren Hart, that always brought down the house.

And now, she’s gone. Her video archived, her reputation besmirched, her statue removed from outside the arena. All because some unknown someone wormed their way as far back as 1931 to discredit her. Yup, eighty-nine years ago, Miss Kate Smith recorded a song that has either offended or might offend someone in 2019. And now her legacy means nothing. Her good deeds, her sterling reputation, her place in Flyers history—poof! Null and void, nixed, erased, eradicated, negated, meaningless.

I’m not saying it would be okay for the same song to be recorded today. It probably wouldn’t. (I say ‘probably’ because many of the lyrics recorded these days are offensive to the point of obscene, and I’m fairly open-minded.)We’re supposedly more enlightened in 2019 than we were in 1931, though, honestly, I’m not so sure. If we can’t keep a little perspective when considering our history, then we haven’t progressed much at all. If the Flyers organization can’t stand by their icon for the good things she accomplished but will delete her on the mewl of a mistake that no one at the time would even have called a mistake, then we’re all screwed. We all deserve—or will deserve—banishment from the annals of mankind because every one of us at some time in our lives either did or will do something ignorant as judged by another’s set of rules.

Can we please focus on the offences being perpetrated today? Can we please acknowledge that yes, historic wrongs must be righted, yet all things must also be put into correct context? Can we please forgive and move on without destroying a legacy of good works? Can we please respect the families of those we decry as sinners of the worst sort simply because of something they did in a time when it was okay to do it? Even if it’s not okay now, forgiveness is the first step to reconciling the races. You don’t move forward by erasing the past. You accept it and pledge not to repeat it.

A lot of other Flyer fans are so outraged they say they’re not fans anymore. They’ll be cheering for Boston or Washington or Pittsburgh next season. Since these folks were obviously looking for a reason to switch team allegiance, it seems they found it.

As for me ... I shall retire to Bedlam.