A "genius" is a person of natural intelligence or talent. The word originated in ancient Rome and was linked with a person's birth (from the verb "gignere", meaning "to give birth"). Some people are just born better, smarter, more talented, stronger and braver than others, and if they become more successful in life, they've deserved it.
source: YouTube
That's bullshit of course. Just look at the "nepo babies" from Hollywood. Still we live under a system that purports to reward merit, and the "nepo babies", from Holywood or anywhere else, prove that we still believe that merit is hereditary within bloodlines or even within races. That's wrong, of course, and even the ancient Romans didn't really believe that talent or intelligence comes from within the person. Let's briefly examine at the etymology of the word "genius".
The Romans believed that all people had some guiding spirit that watched over them during their entire lives. This spirit was born with the person (not in the person), and this spirit was called the "genius". This genius was a supernatural gift that lived outside and alongside the person. And when that person had some incredible talent, or displayed some great creativity, that talent and creativity was assigned to the genius, not to the person. Up until the 16th century even in the English language people still talked about "having a genius". Only when the ideas about spirits and ghosts (and genies) gave way to more rational ideas about people's abilities, the use of the word changed and "having a genius" became "being a genius".
I like the ancient use of the word a lot more. Not because I believe in spirits, ghosts or genies, but because of the acknowledgement that abilities and talents originate outside of the person who has or displays them. Sometimes we still do that, for example when we say that someone's "struck by genius". It's even the title of a book by Jason Padgett: Struck by Genius: How a Brain Injury Made Me a Mathematical Marvel. In his case the "struck" part was quite literal, as he knocked out during a violent mugging. That knock on the head turned him from a college dropout to a mathematical savant. But the point is that our talents, intelligence and other abilities are not from ourselves. No one entirely pulls themselves up by their own bootstraps. That's not to say that we're not all completely unique individuals; we are. And we're living miracles, more miraculous than any spirit or ghost can ever be.
We're made of everything. We are the product of atoms that are billions of years old and have been exploded from stars lightyears away. We are the descendants from the first life-forms on this planet and we still carry their genetic information inside us. Forget Adam and Eve; that story isn't nearly miraculous enough to do our unique existence justice. We are the latest and greatest products in a 14 billion year old story that's still ongoing. Our parents, their parents and their parents'parents, all the way back to Lucy; what was the chance that from all these generations of coincidental meetings of parents you would be here and reading this? Your existence, my friend, is the most extraordinary thing in all of existence.
So, whatever extraordinary talent you've got, do not for a moment believe it's yours. You owe it to everything and everyone that's ever lived. And don't let that make you feel insignificant, because you're the most important person in the universe. Just let it make you feel humble. And grateful. Let it make you enjoy every breath you take, let it take some of your load of, and for a moment make you admire the beauty of it all. You have not just one, but countless geniuses to thank for everything you are and have. And let it make you realize that Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Albert Einstein and every other "great man", or woman, is just part of the same grand story you star in. And when you've done that, watch this lovely video I found about the jin, the genie, the jinni and "shaytan", evil jinn; other types of spirits or ghosts made up in the same genius mind we all share...
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