The happiest people I know seem to have the good fortune to be able to use both halves of their brain. They see the world in colors and have a sense of humor (which means being able to laugh at themselves as well as others). They are not so smart that they are sure everyone else is wrong and yet they have the great gift of common sense which helps them avoid falling into the traps that screw up so many lives.

You can have a 160 IQ and never really be satisfied if it is all concentrated in one particular area. I know a lot of stupid, unhappy people who are genius IQ.

One of the problems I see in our modern approach to education is that we are raising our children with way too much emphasis on the technical and analytical sides of education. We are teaching them to be imperfect computers and then wonder why they live inside the little versions that surround them. If they never learn to utilize the other half of their brains they will lose their humanity. We are deemphasizing the “social sciences” in our educational institutions to a very dangerous degree. When we do this we lose the study of human learning (history), human nature (psychology), human interrelationships (all of the above plus geography), human motivations (all of the above plus philosophy), and human expressionism (all of the above plus art, literature, etc.). Without these we lose the understanding of what it is to be human.

All of these skills are necessary to develop the most essential part of learning if they are to be successful in life. You must have perspective.

The truly successful people that I have met in the art of living life have all understood the importance of balance, perspective and the art of understanding the “nuances” of life. And you don’t have to be particularly wealthy to make good judgments and good decisions at key points. It is important, however, to be equipped with an education that lets you see the world with both sides of your brain.

I worry for our future when I see so many elected officials without that balance: People who are smart but not necessarily in a balanced way. And I worry when I see so many followers who share those problems. If we lose our ability to bring “common sense” to the decisions that we make as a nation, we will fail as a nation. We will be faced with competing with robots, and lose our humanity. I fear this is already starting to happen. Our warring political parties need to put away the pettiness and gather together to teach our children to once again become human.

Glenn K. Currie

p.s.I am sorry that I have not been able to post here for a while but I have, and have had, pneumonia and my energy level is very low.