Big Words I Know

That's true, big words I know. "Rigor Mortis" and "Vigor Vivus" are big words, terms I know and use regularly.

And I feel great knowing them. I've found that exercising my brain with big words like this gives me even greater brain capacity, making my feat an everyday thing for me. In fact, to me at this point, it's trivial.

Using the words (or terms) is one thing, praiseworthy in itself, but really knowing the concepts behind the terms is the critical thing, and that's where I really shine. I know all about Rigor Mortis and Vigor Vivus, just to use this example. Rigor Mortis is death thinking, yielding to death as a way of life, and Vigor Vivus is life thinking, living life to the fullest, being vigorously alive.

How did it happen for me? They put me in school at a very early age, 5. My love of learning wasn't even that great. I guess I was content knowing the little I knew up till then. But still, by repetition and years of having to go, I managed to at least absorb something of what they were saying, however boring it may have been.

I suppose anyone could do what I've done. If you're not an infant or in a coma. The challenge would be too great for infants and coma victims, at least that's my guess. But the rest of you -- currently stumbling around in darkness, ignorance, hopelessness, and pessimism -- could probably chin up a little and set your mind on knowledge. I myself am not all that optimistic, because I see how dumb others are.

Sometimes I wonder how'd we get vast libraries and universities if everyone's so dumb. The answer is, years ago people were smarter. But who today are the dunces going to them if they're really so mentally dull? That's something to think about.

Just among my first guesses would be even the dimmest man has some ascendant instincts. Even in the worst hopelessness, at some obscure level there's every now and then, like five seconds when the night is pitchest black, a random spark. A disconnected wire flares up, jumps, and goes, "Zitz." The man arouses, has an inkling of an idea, than immediately loses it and goes back to diddling his lips and making a bubbling noise. You've heard of Fox News?

Anyway, you get enough of these random sparks -- it might take a million mornings and nights -- and pretty soon he's learning the ABCs and is beginning to sound out simple words like CAT and ERECTOR SET. This is no failure, this is glorious success.

How it came to be that I alone was spared this misery and became so smart, I was very careful with my opportunities. I too looked at and considered eating paint chips, playing video games, and availing myself of easy albeit disease-ridden sexual experiences. But some innate sense of restraint I had -- call it a good upbringing -- told me, warned me that that path, the broad way, led to destruction. So instead, I sat glancing at books now and then, and the rest of the time I sat contemplatively, digesting the words I'd read, and engaging myself in independent thought.

It wasn't till several years, 20-25 years, of this activity -- I was like an intellectual Rip Van Winkle -- that I peeked out the window and noticed that everyone looked like dullard stragglers. I went to the local library and they had big stacks of books in the bathroom for toilet paper. It was a post-apocalyptic scene, which I was able to recognize because everyone looked dirty and disheveled -- and a few guys were wearing those scruffy gloves without finger ends.

A couple of them came up and grunted a few noises. I thought if I were an aural sculptor -- like one of those imaginative dreamers on ghost-hunting shows, who are able with a few hisses and cracks to discern words and whole sentences -- I could make sense out of this throat litter. I replied in kind, not wanting to come across as an aristocrat, as though they'd know what that meant.

Of course, lest I lose my superior abilities -- I got the heck out of there as fast as possible, went to a room by myself, and spent some time enjoying my own knowledge. I'm pretty good company, if I do say so myself, certainly better than my fellow man, although if I need someone to pick bugs off my back and eat them, at least I know where to look.

It's hard to know what to do next. I'll probably continue to read and learn more big words. My mind is like a sponge -- a lot like a sponge -- attracted to smart stuff.