"Narkissos, Alan F, Hillary_Step are three examples of people who never fail to stop me dead in my tracks. I love it---and I love them for that.
They are each--in their own way--dazzling minds! I don't fault them for it.
I'd love to be in that rarefied category of thinker--but--alas, I'm not. I never got farther than High School."
Terry,
Self-deprecation aside, you're not intellectually inferior to the three you mention. I'm certain you've visited other forums and held your own with individuals holding advanced degrees. JWD is atypical, with a greater sampling of machismo and comeuppance. Do you remember JW pickup basketball games,how competitive they were? Knock down, drag out! All those frustrated JW's trying to prove what they could have been if restrictions and limitations of "serving Jehovah" hadn't stifled, squashed and squelched them? Unused or undisplayed intellectual muscles have to be flexed too.
I'm certain that if you ever had the opportunity to eat lunch in Cowtown with your ex-wife at the teacher's table, you quickly realized you were not overmatched intellectually despite working at a book store. Honesty, Terry, weren't some of those teachers and administrators pretty dim bulbs?
"Never getting farther than high school" can be worn like a badge, like an athlete who has never taken steroids. Imagine what I could have done with performance enhancers! I could have been a contender!
tms