
We all could learn something from the woman who takes out a stick of gum and tears it in half. Everyone knows a woman like this. She only chews half and saves the other half for later. She’s amazing. She’s the opposite of the kind of person who eats an entire package of cookies and finds out after the binge that there were 20 servings in the package.
She may or may not care how large a serving size is, but she does know how much she wants. Once she arrives at what she wants, she’s done.
This is a form of intelligence the IQ tests don’t measure. It’s an intelligence higher than is measurable.
She’s the kind who might not have any cookies at all, or she might have only one and then say she’s full. No one can tell her she’s wrong. No one can say she’s lying, because no one even knows how she has such masterful self-control to limit herself to only one cookie. Whether she’s doing it to dazzle you or because she really doesn’t want more is a total mystery.
Higher intelligence is often a mystery. How does she arrive at the smallest portion and find satisfaction? Most people want more, only to find their intelligence lacking. More in one area gives you less in another. So how does the woman who chews half a stick of gum know this? She knew it all along. Where did she gain the knowledge? Was she born with it? Was it passed down genetically? Did her mother have the halving gene? Is the skill one which can be taught? Can another person learn how to save half of everything? If so, how do we get this kind of woman in a teaching career?
We could all learn something from her.