You all know that person… the smartest one in the room. The lad or lass who can one-up everybody else in every area of life. The one who has done it all, seen it all, been everywhere, and has somehow garnered all knowledge and the wisdom of the universe and is generous enough to impart all that personal acumen to the rest of us.
You’re chuckling right now, aren’t you? Because you’ve got someone in mind…
If you won the spelling bee in sixth grade, she took the championship trophy in college. Harvard, no less. If you hit a hole-in-one last Saturday on the golf course, he has four or five of those green jackets they hand out at that big golfing thingie. (Can you tell this non-sports girl is reaching high for some athletic example she can use?) If you’re going rock climbing this summer, she just climbed Mt. Fugi last January.
Aren’t those individuals just a joy to be around? The rest of us always feel so full after being in the presence of such greatness, don’t we?
Now you’re cracking up. And I don’t blame you. As for me? I much prefer being the stupidest person in the room.
I remember when I first realized that I was the puniest little chicken in the pecking order… the weakest link… a veritable goldfish walker -- and it reminded me of always being picked last for kickball in third grade.
That’s never a good feeling.
It was when I was just about to be published for the first time. I was dealing with a lot of really, really smart and talented people who knew way more about what was going on than I did. My publisher, for one. Jeremy Soldevilla at Christopher Matthews Publishing has been in the business more than three decades and will forget more about publishing this morning than I will ever learn in a lifetime. My friend, my mentor, my spiritual director, my muse, Dr. Donna K. Wallace has been published a gazillion times. Brilliant and lovely, she is. Agent Chip MacGregor at MacGregor Literary is not merely extraordinary, he’s seasoned and wise and quick-witted and handsome and NO ONE should ever be that put together.
The guy who designed my book cover, Armen Kojoyian, is fantastic.
My photographer, Tammy Williams, positively sparkles.
My distributor was awesome.
My printer was top notch.
And then there was lil’ ol’ me… the stupidest person in the room. And you know what? It’s all right. I got published.
I try to run with people who are much faster than I am so that I can finish this race in better time than I would have if I were running alone.
And if I’m telling the truth, I make it a point to be the stupidest person in the room because I’m a bit selfish. No, I’m a lot selfish. I want to glean from others… take from them… suck the marrow out of their bones because my bones are bent.
I want to run with people who are New York Times best-selling authors. I want to run with people who move to Moshi, Tanzania to build an orphanage. I want to run with people who are rebuilding the entire infrastructure of Ghana.
These people exist, you know. And they are in my life.
They don’t mind at all that I’m the stupidest person in the room. In fact, they don’t even seem to notice. They’re extraordinary and kind.
All I know is, those who insist on being the smartest people in the room walk away with nothing.
And Lord knows I’m not walking away with nothing.
(*If you liked this post, check out the first "Thou Mayest" post in this series from last week, 'Thou Mayest' Question Authority in Your Church and Totally Bag on Your Own Political Party - Timshel Series)
Daisy Rain Martin is an author, speaker, advocate, and educator as well as a founding member of The Flying M-Inklings Writing Group. She lives with her husband, Sean-Martin, in the beautiful state of Idaho and teaches English and Literature during the school year to the best 7th graders the world over. Daisy spends her summers writing, speaking, researching, creating, gardening, and canning.
Hope Givers: Hope is Here, is the sequel, of sorts, to her comedic, spiritual memoir, Juxtaposed: Finding Sanctuary on the Outside, which was her publisher's (Christopher Matthews) #1 top selling book in 2012. She has also written a free e-book for anyone who has or is currently being sexually abused called, If It’s Happened to You, which appears in its entirety in Hope Givers. Please follow her weekly blog, SATURDAISIES, which addresses a plethora of current issues including child advocacy, all things hilarious, and matters of the heart. She would love for you to join the Rainy Dais Community by friending her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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