Why MENSA isn't doing you any favors...

I like smart people just as much as the next guy, but sometimes, they really frost me.

Growing up, my folks put a lot of emphasis on our education, but more importantly on humility.
It is great that Davey and I are intelligent - great that I did well in school, but after I stopped receiving report cards, who in the heck cares that I aced my SATs?  Exactly - no one.

In all honesty, I don't use big words on purpose - it can muddy the water and cloud the meaning of the message.

When I am with physicians, I often find myself speaking more simply and I can see that my lack of clinical language can impact the way they hear my message.  Eh, it happens and over time the realize that if my primary function is to explain things in layman's terms, that layman's terms will be my primary language.
Using lots of thesaurus-based words doesn't mean you are intelligent - and even if it does, what good is a high IQ unless you put that brain-power to use for the good of others?  I reminds me of that passage: if I can speak with the tongue of angels, but have not love, I am a clanging gong...

Does my IQ entitle me to more income?
Does it make my opinion carry more weight or validity?
Does my IQ mean that I know more than other people?
Does it mean that I am somehow more "right" than everyone else?

Um....no.

Measurement of IQ has been heatedly debated of late because it measures only one type of intelligence.  This is borne out in the number of people we know who are book-smart, but couldn't find their way out of a cardboard box outside the classroom.  Or the people who are great orators, but who cannot put those principles into practice because their emotional intelligence doesn't match their intellectual intelligence.

Everyone has their own strengths, and focusing on how brilliant you are can very easily lead to begininning to believe your own accolades.  It is a pride-fall in the making.

Be thankful for your gifts, utilize them for the betterment of mankind, but for Heaven's Sake, don't think that because you paid your dues to MENSA that you are the only person in your circle of friends who has any sense.