Genius and Longevity

I've come across people who are very bright. Intellectually alive and creative. Enormously thought provoking. Challenging conversationalists. Funny, smart and quick witted.

You surely know the type. I have stored in my memory many such people. As I journeyed on in life to other states, careers and regions of the country, I still think about these people. I wonder where they are. Some hearken from high school days, others from college, still others in various interest groups and organizations I have participated in over the years. Each connection yields at least one hugely smart person.

Then there are the true geniuses. These are the people who seem to inhabit a world of their own. There is a reason for that appearance: they usually are in a rare world of their own. It is where they can freely associate disparate ideas and connect them to discover other ideas of startling freshness and potential value.

Genius. What is that? Well, it is an almost primal sense of thinking on one’s own and coming to conclusions that are spookily on target; trouble is that person, the genius, is the only one who knows this. And he/she is very much alone in that knowledge.

Alone. Marooned, maybe. No one to turn to and say, “Aha! Did you just catch what this means?” and of course there is no one there to speak to; no one at all.

The genius may love other people, even a special someone. And perhaps a special someone loves the genius. The problem is they don’t think in these terms very often and communicate even more rarely. In a room of 5000 people not one can speak the genius’ language. In the world there are few who can converse on a level that resonates with him/her. Lonely? They must be!

What does this do to the genius? What feelings are embraced or feared? Or dreaded?

Einstein was a genius. He had a legendary sense of humor. He was married and had a daughter and two sons. Although his first marriage ended in dissolution he married a cousin later. He was not alone. He had professional colleagues he could work with and speak among. But intellectually he spent much time alone, listening to music and thinking upon long complicated theories.

Einstein taught, researched and held administrative posts. He had a career from which he retired but continued to collaborate with others until his death in 1955. He was 76 years old when he died.

Albert Einstein had social skills. He interacted successfully with many people. Odd personality at times, no doubt; but able to live in the world with diverse persons.

What is the opposite of this? Being a genius but lacking the social skills to get along with others? To build relationships with others? Love, laugh and have babies? Build a life that energizes the inner self?

No. There are geniuses among us who cannot handle practical daily living. Their strengths reside in understanding complex issues and making sense of them. They can take the esoteric facts of life – first of all notice them and keep them separate from the non-esoteric – and go on to discover how these facts matter in wondrous ways. We cannot do that; they can. Yet we can find love and love others; we can build families and careers and associations that build on one another to very high consequences.

The genius complex I am pointing out to you is the one in which the person cannot function fully on his own. He can think and create in intellectual arenas but he cannot work well with others in more personal matters. They are alone; very, very alone.

In isolation they lose touch with the realities we know well. And they drift off into a world of their own increasingly removed from the rest of us until they can no longer find their way back. They become lost; many never return.

I wonder how we can protect their unique gifts for their own good and that of society? How do we help them make the most of their lives?  Is it an institutional environment in which research, thinking and creation are the tasks at hand while living arrangements are carefully managed for their own good and safety? If so how do we make this happen? And if we are not doing so right now, how many geniuses do you suppose we are losing each and every day?

It makes me shudder. You and I know a genius. Will these special persons survive?

February 7, 2013