A Genius in the Mirror

Mountains of Arizona
Partly Cloudy 100 Degrees
2:22 p.m.

John Taylor Gatto, the award winning public school teacher who quit teaching because he decided he could no longer subject children to that level of abuse, is known for saying…

“I’ve concluded that genius is as common as dirt. We suppress our genius only because we haven’t yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. The solution, I think, is simple and glorious. Let them manage themselves.”

If that’s true, and my experience shows me it is, then we’ve got a serious problem.

The problem is that we have an entire planet of people who were taught to believe a lie.

Riddle me this…

How does your world change if you finally realize YOU are a genius who’s been fooled your entire life into thinking that you weren’t one?

That might take some getting used to.

Because if you don’t know you’re a genius, you’re not going to act like one. And you’re not going to imbue your thoughts and ideas with the inherent value they deserve because you will have been led to believe you have to get someone else to provide that validation for you.

If you don’t know you’re a genius, then you’re going to run the risk of listening to what others think you should do with your life rather than understanding that no one else, no matter how many credentials they’ve bought for themselves, could POSSIBLY know what is best for you.

If you don’t know you’re a genius, then you’re not going to take the time to understand that genius. And if you don’t understand your specific flavor of genius, or work to develop that understanding, you will run the risk of spending your time doing things outside that area. You will, by your own doing, put the finishing touches on the illusion that you are normal, and average, or maybe just one of those folks destined to struggle. You will be the elephant forever trying to climb a tree.

Ahhh… but we’ve been trained not to “toot our own horn” or “get a big head,” right?

“Pride goeth before the fall.” That’s part of the training. Religion trained me. The subtle threat of eternal damnation for not toeing the line. What a pretty thought. Such a nice story to tell a child. To build a wall around the love and “salvation” he could easily grant to himself and tell him to go get it from someone else.

You want to change everything in your reality? Then stand up, dear Genius, and stand in your power. Accept that you’re a genius. Get used to the fact that you’ve always been one. And rather than giving life force to perpetuate the illusion that’s been cast upon you as an invisible prison, starve the beast and let it die.

Genius is as common as dirt. And it’s also just as special.

Plant it, nurture it, offer it endless love and it will grow into a thing of beauty unlike anything the world has seen.