Here comes some boorish bragging: According to IQ tests taken when they were young both my children (pictured) are geniuses. Their subsequent records offer proof. Both were high school valedictorians & both graduated with honors from Harvard & from law school. Beyond academics both were student council presidents & my daughter was a state champion in two sports. 

    It has always been a great experience watching them solve problems far beyond my limited intellect. What matters, of course, is not test scores but that both are wonderful, light-filled beings. That is their special genius. 

   "Love, love love, that is the soul of genius!"Mozart wrote. So there are geniuses all around us. My younger sister, Martha, is one. She has an exceptional ability to understand how others feel & to heal them with her heart. 

   Without light, intelligence does not matter. Without love, brilliance dips dark. 

   What if we took the question of genius to a quantum level? Einstein & Newton looked through life's scrim & discovered truths that eluded the rest of us.

   Musical notes are available to all. Bach plaited gossamer from those same notes & created music that yet wraps us in its thrall. 

   Yet, there is a mystical land of secrets yet unknown because no genius has yet been born who can see them & translate them for us. 

   Deep insight requires much more than analytics. It calls for a "seeing" available only to the rarest among us.

   One day, new souls will bring new light. Their discoveries could be as profound as the differences between handwriting & the printing press, a train & a spaceship, an abacus & a computer. 

   Even more startling, these special mutineers may splay open spiritual perceptions we cannot imagine nor are describable with language we know now.

   What if we learned that roses have souls? What if the problems of pain were solved? Could robots kidnap human consciousness?

   Meanwhile, my nominee for the greatest genius of all time is not Plato, Beethoven or Rembrandt. It is Jesus. 

   The most shattering knowings lie in a higher consciousness. Birthed from the lap of Love Jesus engaged his other-worldly awareness to introduce a view of God never seen before his time. 

   Jesus took the theory of God & made it real here on earth. Can there be any more special genius than that? 

-Erie Chapman