What is stupid?

Why do we think a particular lesson is stupid? Or rather, why do we think we are stupid because we took so long to learn the lesson?
At least we finally learned it!

I’m talking to myself of course.
I could have a pretty simple way of life if I just wasn’t so curious.

By my age I have learned a lot of things... some not so much fun but a lot of them have made life sweeter and more comfortable.

Although I’ve got to admit that having a computer has been a mixed blessing!
If I would just stay with the things I’ve learned to do on it I think it would be very fulfilling. I can write up my stories... e-mail friends... gab on Facebook, etc.

But not me.
I got fascinated making my own videos... and then sharing them with the world.
The problem is that I don’t always understand the books that explain how to do it... and I don’t remember what I was taught at the classes I took and I can’t understand my own notes on how to do these things. (I may have oversimplified this... but you get my mindset.)

And maybe this isn’t just about the computer.
Maybe it’s more about life...

Maybe there are still things to “conquer”.
You see, I was told back in junior high school by an adviser that I was too shy to be a journalist. I should pick another profession.
But I thought maybe “shy” people could be more sensitive when writing up a story.

Although 50 years later I found I was still dealing with some of the same fears I had as a teenager.
I had thought I could “tough it through”... and that works sometimes.

Like when I was reading my columns on a twin cities radio station a couple years ago. I had to shorten my stories to fit in the 120 second time frame they offered. (Although I hope newspaper readers take more time to enjoy the full column!)
But while reading on the air I was so nervous I thought I would throw up. Since I was doing the show by telephone from home, I realized I didn’t want to throw up on my carpet. So I put an empty ice cream bucket next to the phone. (Wouldn’t that have been an interesting audio for the station’s listeners to hear?)

But I didn’t have to use it.
And after a while I didn’t even have the bucket near the phone.

But recently I was heading to video a group of people and 90 seconds of pure anxiety hit me. Well, it's down to 90 seconds sometimes. I reconciled this fear with the fact that I knew when I got to the “shoot”, I would go into action and really enjoy the process. And I did.

The next day I was heading to another interview and as the fear hit me again I had another thought. I recognized that the fear was valid (I know the mistakes I've made) but just as valid was the thought that I would enjoy the session. And the people would too.

So I chose to skip the fear and smile at my new thought. This worked. And I'll do it again.

It seems like a good lesson... and I guess that any time we can learn one, we’re not stupid.

Now back to my questions about my computer...

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