Family Motto.

My family has always had this saying that they have impressed upon all of us grandchildren since birth. It's something that my grandparents, mom, dad, step-dad, aunt, uncle, cousins, and sister firmly believe, as far as I can tell anyways. I, on the other hand, completely hate it.

"Makes friends with people who are smarter than you, that way the more time you spend with them, the more it rubs off on you, and the better off you are."

Initially, this makes sense. At a surface level view, who would honestly disagree with this? Everyone wants to be smarter or better off.

Except my family takes it a lot more personally than that. It's something that is to be lived out, a qualification to be met. That's where I have big issues with it.

Let's start with the basics. If we were all to only befriend those who are smarter than us, we aren't going to have many friends because those that I would want to befriend (based on this thought) will have no interest in me. My life would be pretty lonely and dark if I didn't have the people who have offered me their hand to help me up, and to help me learn in my life.  And that's just the selfish facet of the issue, because it extends so far beyond personal gain.

Not only would we all be pretty lonely in life, but we would all be pretty damn stuck. Forward progress is impossible without learning, sharing, and action occurring at every "level" of intelligence. Humans were created to learn and grow from each other. If I become so wrapped up in my own advancement that I refuse to see and acknowledge those who I can help, I have failed as a human being. A speaker at the relationship presentation I attended said it best, "Our first responsibility, as humans, is to humanity."

Call me crazy, and trust me- my family does frequently. But I don't think you're living unless you're experiencing both giving and receiving directly. There is a natural ebb and flow to this, sometimes need to get more than you are capable of giving, hell, I'm there now. But in time, when you're ready, you start giving others what you learned in your time of need, or maybe just back to giving how you had been. A part of being gifted with knowledge is being tasked with educating others with it.

"You have not lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you."

- John Bunyon.