How often we feel this sense of not being heard or needing to prove our words necessary for others to hear. We feel the sense of being wronged because we have more than adequately proved ourselves to be the smartest or the most insightful of the company we keep. We project our internal responses into the world of reality for all to plainly see. Or in other words, we think that we responded to someone with brilliant discussion, when all we have actually done is internalized the words that the speaker has used. Or if you are an extrovert, you might have voiced (repeated) every word the speaker has said, and you wonder why the speaker never heard a damn thing you said.

Feelings of not being heard are our reinforcements which ensure us that indeed we are the smartest people alive. And rightly so! WE are the smartest people in the world because we each carry that piece of internal, mysterious logic within ourselves which makes us seem to ourselves that we have been so clear for all to see. How can we not think, or how can others not see just how smart we are? The Fall has begun. I do believe that it is quite good and normal to think of ourselves as the smartest beings alive, but I would venture a guess that trouble comes to play havoc in our lives when we dare to reach beyond our own playground into another. Thinking of oneself as the smartest being alive is quite easy to prove. I know how I think. I know how good I think. I know how right my thinking is. “I hold these things to be ‘self-evident.’” But such characteristics are not so self-evident to others. As a matter of fact, I think I could make an educated guess that the way I look to many people is quite ridiculous. O.K. If I am honest, I might admit to be even the dumbest person I know. If I could project a vision of myself, just like being in your my dreams at night, then I could see this ridiculous creature who counts one nickel and four dimes as 50 cents five times in a row. Sometimes we just count wrong. Though it all works out in our heads, it just doesn’t work out in other people’s reality. I think I can live with this perverted logic, that is, the logic which makes everything so clear to myself, and the logic which escapes every other human being’s understanding. But I hope I never forget one without the other, for it is the extreme of each that makes us able to survive in the world. The fact that I believe I am the most intelligent human being on this earth allows me to take actions towards justice, equality, hope, and righteousness, the building blocks of faith to live in this world. On the other hand, the fact that I believe I am the dumbest person in this world allows me to trust and have hope in others to make love, kindness, and patience, attributes which are the creators of relationship in the world.