The Smartest Guy in the Room ...

If you've ever visited my FB page, you know how I kind of have a thing for quotes.  One of my very favorites is the comical, but deceptively accurate:
"If you're the smartest person in the room – you’re in the wrong room."

And if you've taken one of my classes before you know how I love to use quotes to "step into" a collage.  This one is especially great as a stepping stone as it gives us a clue as to what characteristics we view as “smart” or admirable.  And just like in real life, it isn’t always the person who LOOKS like the smartest person in the room who actually IS the smartest person in the room. 
 
As an exercise in my latest online class I had students take a walk around the collage, “The Brain Bearer” in order to pick out which character they viewed as the Smartest Guy (or Gal) in the Room.  Was it the man with the piece of chalk?  The Cabbage Bearer?  The Shaman?  The Giggling Swimmer? The Grumpy Swimmer?  Could it be the brain-slice carrying bird? (A little Dante collage trivia for you:  that’s actually an actual snap from one of my post-stroke MRI’s in the bird’s beak.) Or maybe the smartest guy/gal in the room is actually the Little Girl? 

Working the exercise myself, I used what I like to call the Goldilocks process of deduction, to determine who I thought was the Smartest Guy/Gal in the room.  Here’s what thoughts ran through MY head:

Oh sure, the Guy with the Chalk wants you to think that he's the Smartest Guy in the Room, but there's just a little too much pretension there. 

And the Shaman, in all his shadowed aloofness, also would like to be deemed Smartest Guy, but he's just too shadowed. Not very engaged. And "working it" a bit too hard, if you ask me.

As for the Little Girl, I like that she’s looking up, as for me looking up speaks of asking for Divine Guidance.  That level of communion certainly ranks in "smart-ocity" in Dante-land.  

But then again, she looks a little timid, as well as kind of glued to her chair. Which bothered me as, for me, true wisdom isn't just about thought/contemplation but about ACTION as well.  And right now the Little Girl is still a little too frightened or uncertain to act.

Then my eyes went to the Laughing Ladies - the Cabbage Bearer and the Swim Goggle Woman. Because I do believe that honest laughter, the more spontaneous and bawdy the better, is a BIG sign of wisdom to me. When you can transcend the trials of life, neither denying nor battling them, but living in, with and through them - now THAT's wisdom.

So I took a look at my two happy gals, the one with cabbages and the one with goggles, and I had to go with Swim Goggle Woman, because she seems to be aware that there are certain things you can use to protect yourself from the elements.

(and having lived in the desert for the last 13 years, I'm aware that a certain element of reality is necessary) that will in turn allow you to live more fully and freely in the environment you find yourself in.

So she's there. She's IN it. 
But she's also taking brilliant care of herself.
And enjoying the heck out of the experience, which in MY book makes her:

The Smartest Guy (Gal) in the Room.

Who do YOU see as the "Smartest Guy/Gal in the Room"?  And realize, do, that there are no wrong answers.  Or static answers.  Whatever you see is the right answer for you, and it may change a year, a month, heck even a week or day from now, depending on what chapter you're currently in in YOUR life story.

Right now, I must be in my Laughter and Protective Wear chapter, but who knows what next week might bring?  It's all part of that delicious mystery that we call Life.  Would you like to see what delicious mysteries are awaiting YOUR discovery?  Then join me in my next online course to see what the treasure maps Contemplative Collage holds for YOU.   

Hope to "see" you soon!
In Love and Light -
Dante