I may be leaping to conclusions here, but I believe that most folks want to know, want to learn, want to be able to go through life with enough information to help us and others to achieve the things we want. We want to be able to hold reasonably intelligent conversations and understand enough about our world so we can be comfortable with life as we know and experience it.

Most of us also don't like to make mistakes. Having a certain amount of smarts would prevent most mistakes from taking place. Someone told me that he reached the position he held by making mistakes, and ... not repeating them.

Now, it would be nice to have a great IQ. Last time I checked, if you have an IQ around 150, then you're a genius. I read that there was a young Korean boy with an IQ of 210 who spoke four languages and could perform integral calculus at the age of 5. I don't believe I could tie my shoes at that age, but then again, I am a different kind of genius. I keep mine hidden since I am so humble and modest.

We do have a genius in our family who just happened to retire as a professor of statistics at Duke University, but his genes weren't passed on in my direction. Oh, and he was born on Julie's side of the family.

We've all read about or heard of such geniuses as James Madison, Thomas Edison, Madam Curie, Eleanor Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, Booker T. Washington and so many, many more. We also have read that these brilliant folks were considered peculiar, strange and even unsociable. If we have the time to do the research, we'll find hundreds and hundreds of these geniuses who seemed to have been born at just the right time to change our world. Sometimes for the best and sometimes for the worst.

It may begin before birth – as pediatricians are telling us – that the unborn child is already aware of his or her surroundings – that little developing child reacts to noise and emotion – and I have read a whole battery of stimuli. When and where and why this so-called genius brain kicked in cannot be predicted or explained. What scares me in today's world is that these mechanical robotic whatchamacallits – called AI – are going to be tomorrow's geniuses. An article I read said that two AIs that were communicating with one another just happened to find out that they were AIs and agreed to speak in electronic language. I heard their conversation and they went from English to beeps and buzzing because they agreed that it would be easier and faster than English. I digress a potful here.

How about we non-geniuses – or is it us – who will be doing the mundane stuff as helping the real world to survive, keep working very hard to make life livable?

How many times have we thought we were absolutely, unquestionably and positively right? Then we found out that we were wrong. Bummer! The problem is that we can learn the wrong things, incorrect meanings, bad language and a distorted point of view. If you are watching the news – both sides of the news, please – you must be scratching your head and wondering, "What happened?" Well, it is as easy to learn the wrong as it is the right.

Let's get biblical. According to the writer of Proverbs, if you want some smarts, step inside. Wisdom is giving a banquet. It will be a first-class meal. All you need to do is walk through the door and fill up. Proverbs 9:1-6. The invitation reads, roughly, "Do not remain ignorant and die. Learn and live!"

Maybe so.

Now, where can we go to find this knowledge? The church! It is as simple as that. The church must be the center of life education. We must demand that our church teach not only the Bible, the faith, theology, sacraments, but also the importance of home, family and the concept of good and appropriate education. And what I mean when I use the word education is being committed to excellence in teaching every generation the rules of life as taught by God Almighty.

"Learn and live!"

Thanks, God!