Once upon a time, when I was in college there was this freshman girl, really cute, bubbly, smiling, attractive. She had a personality that simply drew others to her. People could not help but like her. One Saturday night at a party I had opportunity to talk to her, just the two of us. Boy howdy, I was one lucky country boy! It only took a few minutes of small talk to discover she was… different. Her thinking was unique. She made non sequitur comments, and she laughed a lot.
“Do you know a horse?”, she would ask.
“Well, My body is mine.”
“I just love long sleeve vests!”
“My past is not a burden.”
All the time talking nearly nonstop, with expression and confidence.
What was she saying? Was I not smart enough or educated enough to understand the meaning of her comments? After all, I was just an unsophisticated kid. It did not take long before I was confused and my confidence was shot. She was too smart for me! So I ended the conversation and moved on.
I occasionally saw her over the years until graduation, always surrounded by “friends”, intent on everything she said. I became more educated during those four years, and finally understood that it was not that she was deeply intuitive, or even intelligent, and her random language revealed her random thinking. Her language was confused because her thoughts were confused. She simply could not think coherently. So why did so many people believe she made so much sense? It dawned on me that it was because of her winning personality and her ability to weave those nonsense statements into plausible sounding stories people could easily follow that caused listeners to believe her. That in turn made her feel invincible.
I lost track of her for many years and one day discovered she had become a lawyer, moved through many jobs, and acquired national reputation and importance. She still said weird things and was still surrounded by “friends” – even more than in college – many of them very powerful. I wondered how someone with a head full of cottage cheese could accomplish so much, when the lyrics of the Beatles’ song came to mind…
“I get by with a little help from my friends…”
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