living it!

I had a good discussion yesterday with a good friend about figuring out the right balance between "intellectual talk" that comes about simply as an ego booster ("look, I have an amazing vocabulary and can make my point sound better than yours simply through my use of words") versus "intellectual talk" that is actually meant to get us somewhere...you know, the kind that combines with action?

[We were discussing a section of "Blue Like Jazz", which I highly recommend, and it was the part that talked about the highly intellectual character of students at Reed College...my friend brought up the point that he often dislikes these types of students who seem to want to "talk big" but "act little or not at all". I started at this a bit because Miller's description of Reed College students in the book is much like some of the students I encountered in the Residential College at UM...very intellectually driven, smart, with a focus on solving the social problems of the world]

I still struggle a ridiculous amount with wanting to sound smart with the words I use[I blame about 80% of this on a mix of growing up in Ann Arbor and attending the University of Michigan]. I think, however, that I'm finally arriving at a point in my life where I get sick of hearing words come out of my mouth unless I can actually back them up with action or evidence that it's something I've thought about A TON. My friend challenged me on this point too.

I think, too, that in battling with this arrogance I built a mental wall that has sometimes made it hard for me to listen to the people around me unless they can "match" my vocabulary. Shudder...I certainly am blind and deaf, in need of eyes that see and ears that hear.