so i took an i.q. test yesterday...which is totally unlike me in that i am not a firm believer in measuring intelligence...but i was curious so i did it anyway...(man, how many times has that statement gotten me into trouble!)
but i can't tell you my score...not because i'm keeping it a secret, but because it was one of those tests they administer on-line and when you want your results they make you send in your e-mail and all sorts of other private information to get them...
i don't like that kinda thing so i opted out...
and i wonder if i don't like it better this way?...having completed the test but not knowing the score...because although i know i possess some amount of intelligence, i am kind of concerned about knowing exactly how much...or how little!...
the test was difficult...but i felt i did a good job in that i answered every question and there was only one i was unsure of...
well, on page one...
page two was a whole page of those spatial type questions...like they want you to choose the one that best continues the sequence...
i can rarely see why the sequence they give you matches in the first place!...let alone continue it!...maybe on one or two, the really easy ones...but damn, these were hard!...
i know i'm not spatially aware, but i really really tried to see the pattern...any kind of connection...it was like being lost in denver at three in the morning...the flattest place with seemingly NO landmarks and could we get a street or freeway sign over here!...just ONE!...c'mon, throw me a bone!...(it's been nearly ten years and i still have issues with my one trip to denver)...
so i was trying to see the patterns, something, anything, before i started guessing...i couldn't...
so i did what any intelligent person would do, i got help...i know i know it's a *test*, but it was supposed to be for *fun*...but it wasn't fun...and i felt that the test didn't keep up it's end of the bargain, so i called in the duke...
now the duke, like his father, is a very spatially aware individual...he could help me...and, i reasoned, it wouldn't really be cheating as he is my own flesh and blood...and therefore, just an extention of me...
poor kid, i hope he never reads this...
anyhow, to make a long story short, he took a crack at it, but didn't really understand what the sequences were either...it didn't help that i attempted to solicit his help right in the middle of his watching magic school bus, all the while wingman kept on yelling "hey, dude" over and over and over just because he was wearing sunglasses...
so, that was a bust...i spent a bit more time and realized the answer to one of them, and had to kinda guess (i thought i might just maybe kinda know) at the other three...
so i guess i am a bit upset i didn't get my score...simply to see the ones i missed...
but it's not going to change me...
i'm still going to have that spatial relationship problem...it prevents me from packing the car for trips in the most efficient manner...or being able to cut and paste properly when working on a word document...or heaven forbid being able to do much of anything on the computer except type...
and i can't read a map, or remember where individual countries are...sure, point a to point b is a piece of cake...but deviate from that and i'm a goner...
and the duke?...he can read a map like a champ...he can look at an atlas, globe, road map and see it in a way i just can't...once he figured out how long it would take him to travel the length of brazil non-stop...
where is brazil?...
he's always been like that...i am remembering when the duke was small, and we had just gotten him a wooden train track in a figure eight pattern...sucker took me six months to figure out to where i didn't have to spend an hour studying the box and swearing...i kid you not!...i was so frustrated every time...
and the duke at three years old figured it out before i did...it took him no time at all...i think he just asked me to help him put it together because it was so funny to see me get so mad...
and i'm also remembering that i'd feel so guilty i got so mad that i'd usually compensate in the form of an extra treat or half hour of television...
no need to test that kid...
and last halloween, the duke wanted native american costumes for he and wingman...we found a great pattern, fabric, ribbon, the whole nine yards (give or take a yard...tee hee)...i spent days sewing and they turned out fabulously if i do say so myself...BUT, in the beginning, when i first opened the pattern i was near tears...literally...i couldn't understand a thing...
sure, i knew enough to know the sizes i needed, and how much fabric, but the actual pattern?...(and have you ever actually opened a pattern?...it EXPLODES!)...forget that i was sitting in a sea of it in my dining room, even when i did manage to smooth it out a bit, it might as well have been written in aramaic...it was a disaster...i had to call a friend's mother whom i knew to be a wonderful seamstress, get some pointers, then give those pointers to the lord of the ring...
who then cut out BOTH sizes from ONE pattern like he'd been hanging around the sewing store his whole life!...he saw the pattern and didn't cry, just figured it out and started cutting...he was able to *see* how the pattern went, and how out of one pattern you really could cut out two VERY different sizes...
(poor guy, he was sweating cutting out the pattern, though...not because he didn't know what he was doing, but because i was hovering over him just waiting for him to *ruin* the $15 pattern i couldn't replace...four days before halloween)
so working together, the lord of the ring and i were able to get the costumes done...and while i'd like to have been able to not freak at the sight of the pattern and be able to cut it out myself, i am grateful i have help when i need it...
as humans we all have special skills, and i've never thought that every person should be able to do or solve every kind of thing or problem...(not freaking out about it would be nice, though)...that's the benefit of having relationships, family, and friends...in a group, there is bound to be a person for every job, and a job for every person...
and that's why i've never really put much stock in i.q. tests and the like...because i think that a measure of your i.q. is just that...a measure, an interpretation...it's not the whole picture or even part of it...because i know people with very high i.q.'s who can't spell or remember their phone numbers or bake a cake or conduct relationships or play at the park...(come to think of it, i know people with questionable i.q.'s who can't do many of those things, either!)...
it can be a matter of personal goals, choice, or the luck of the draw that ultimately determines the measure of our intelligence...it's when we start worrying about what we don't have, what can't be measured perhaps, that it starts getting wonky...
so while i'm curious about how i performed on certain areas of the test, i'm not really interested in their interpretation of the results...because regardless of what a challenging test would yield me in terms of an *intelligence quotient*, i already know i'm smart...
smart enough to bring the duke along on road trips and keep the lord of the ring close at hand during halloween...
x.
oh, and a very happy birthday to mother lord of the ring...may the road rise up to meet you and the wind always be at your back...and may the water commission pull their heads out of their asses right in time for your birthday...lovelovelove from all of us here at the big red house...
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