The Eccentricities of Genius
It occurred to me that one of the prerequisites to being brilliant seems to be a predisposition for being eccentric. Or perhaps being eccentric is more of a byproduct of genius. Either way, it is undeniable that the 2 go hand in hand. The most gifted minds that have walked this earth regardless of which century they existed shared this trait. Mozart, Einstein, Edgar Allan Poe, Liberacci, Ernest Hemmingway, Michael Jackson, Robin Williams. The list goes on and on. They also shared some level of alienation, often self-imposed but at times they were excluded because their odd behavior inadvertently pushed others away. There is evidence of these characteristics across every discipline including sports. Athletes are often wrongly labeled as “dumb jocks”, as if the only thing they know how to do is throw or kick a ball around. Many of these jocks however, are in their own right, every bit as brilliant as the masters of the literary or musical realm. It’s naïve at best and perhaps ignorant to say that you don’t need brains to play sports. Those who are the very best at their sport are most often highly intelligent. It’s true occasionally there are physically gifted athletes that seem to fall short on mental prowess. But they are not the norm. Case in point, you cannot separate the mind from the body and so what further sets apart the best from the best of these performers is how they are able to synergize these highly integrated systems. In my opinion however, there is a high cost of such eccentric functioning. They also all seemed to have a fatal flaw. For some it was physical and others mental or emotional, but in the end it was the essence of their humanness and often it lead to their demise in one way or another. Few of these individuals ever found redemption in their lifetime. For most, despite inherent character flaws reverence seems to flourish best post-humorous.
Our question: What’s the most important lesson of all that we can take away from this elite population?
Physical expression of the function of the brain: musicians- instruments, athletes- their bodies are their instruments.
