Blog Dis

Here I go again! I'm sliding down that most slippery of slopes, freshly greased up with extra-virgin olive oil and melted, churned butter that's been left on the counter in blazing heat. The slippery slope in question is the determination of intellectuality, which is to say the gift of being able to apply rational thought over emotions that some refer to as power but which in reality is another form of abstraction. After all, who's to say with unequivocal certainty that he or she is more intellectual than someone else?

How the heck do you apply the label of intellectual when it cannot be applied evenly across the board? Simple: create an abstraction that is uneven.

For instance, as you shake your head and mutter, inwardly, "That Patricia has gone off the deep end," the abstraction is in the application of perception. I know one man who has an intellectual gift for history and is able to wax and wane philosophy like a surgeon with a scalpel. But ask this same individual to deviate from his particular field of abstract thought, and he is lost, thereby proving my point that his intellectual capacity is limited. Regardless, he may apply rational thought in discussing history but his intellectuality is decisively abstract.

Are you still with me, as we slip and slide down this most slippery of slopes? It's beginning to move faster, like some maniac's water-slide, curving from side to side, and there's a bump up ahead.

Because each of us is gifted with a brain, one would automatically think that rational thought is a given state of mind with one and all. And in a manner of speaking it is; your brain is naturally designed to apply rational thought to every idea and action, only we know the truth of intellectuality is not really that simple because emotion often clouds our perception. And perception, as we know is nine-tenths of the problem when constructing a viable abstract model of intellectuality. Scholars have been labeled the intellects of our time but you may find, as I have on too many occasions, that scholarly intellectuals are sometimes some of the most intensely stupid people the school system has ever created - professional students. No, they are not given to over-emotionalism but their abstract intellectuality is not practical, which probably explains why they belong in the corridors of dusty books and black robes.

Abstract intellectuality does not breed farmers or plumbers with dirt under their fingernails. Never mind about the construction workers either. None of these trades would be considered intellectual pursuits, but you might be surprised to learn that a construction worker and his gorgeously tanned body is in fact a man of intellectual insight on his off-hours, reading a varied selection of intellectual books. Again, the application of the abstraction does not recognize barriers or stereotypes.

Even I'm having difficulty staying on this slippery slope. I find my grip is slipping into a headlong fall that propels me further ahead, desiring something as light and easy as a comic strip. I don't consider myself to be an intellectual. I am both emotion and intellect and my abstract perception is often eschewed by desire. The construct of my thinking and my emotions change on a daily basis, depending on how good I feel when I wake up in the morning.

This is it! 🤬 The slope has curved far beyond my comprehension and it's at this point that I must wave goodbye and fall off. Time for chocolate!