Do you ever feel like you have explained something to perfection to only to have the explainee look at you with dead eyes and say so brilliantly, “Huh?”  It can be quite infuriating and, obviously require the patience of someone greater than I.  We all struggle with stupidity on a regular basis – whether it is the checker at the grocery store, the guy working the Best Buy counter, the co-worker that just doesn’t get it, the client that refuses to understand the itemized charges during the course of a search, the candidate who still can’t figure out how to attach a resume or the neighbor that doesn’t understand why it isn’t ok for her to flick cigarette butts into your garden.   Things that make you go, “Aggghhhhhh!”

And how we deal with stupidity will determine who we are, what we are like, our own level of stupidity.  I am not always conscious of the need to be over-the-top friendly as I have a lot of work to do and I don’t deal well with time-consuming bull.  Doesn’t it feel like, sometimes, the bull is an act?  As if acting stupid or ignorant prolongs the need for action from the stupid party of one?  I figured out a long time ago that not everyone acts or thinks on the same level and there are times when significant patience is required more than others.

I guess you could say it has been one of those days, but the truth is - those days are always there, looming.  Days when dealing with the obtusity of others is requisite.  But ignorance is in the eye of the beholder.  Yes, we all do foolish things or make unintelligent comments or make brainless choices.  And again, it is how you rectify or repair the situation or how you deal with your own personal stupidity that makes the (wo)man. 

For me, blowing off steam and yelling at the car in front of me or picking up trash that has carelessly been thrown on the beach are ways of dealing.  So is shutting out stupid comments and diverting the attention of the dim-witted - "oohh, shiny..."

Forrest's mom said, "Stupid is as stupid does."  Well, what the heck am I supposed to do with that when "stupid does" affects my work, my family, my well-being, my community, my sanity, my life?  Work smarter. Live smarter.  Just be smarter.  Easier said than done. 

by rayannethorn