I'm Smart: #2

What I learned at last weekend’s academic conference:

1. How to be smartelligent and create ginormous words to add to my ordinary and limited vocabulary.
2. Where to find the people who matter and mingle with greatness
3. When a man (in the academy) asks me a question do not automatically assume it’s a picking-up line
4. Why I don’t want a career in academia (hint: it’s related to #1, #2, and #3)
5. Why my mom is always right…

Number 2: Where to find the people who matter and mingle with greatness

I was told on more than once last weekend that I was in the presence of greatness. “So-n-so is the leading expert in the field of Sociology”; “so-n-so is the country’s most preeminent ethicist”, and so on. On one occasion, I was found sitting at a table with a famous scholar in Religion & Society. Needless to say, most of the time I had no idea that I was in the presence of greatness until someone pointed it out to me.

So here is my question: If you don’t know you’re in the presence of greatness are you? I mean, is a movie star (Matt Damon, for example) really great all the time or just when people think he is? (But, I’m pretty sure some people think he’s great all the time so that answers that. ;)

Well, at one point last weekend I knew for sure that I was in the presence of greatness! I was in a pub down the street from the conference (getting a mental break from academic jargon) and in through the door walks Cornel West. Not only is Cornel West a ‘prolific writer’ and ‘acclaimed author’ in academia (and teaches at Princeton) he made an appearance in a couple of Matrix flicks upon request. But the reason that I believe in his greatness is that he is a huge activist for social justice, especially when it comes to racism and poverty. He wrote the books "Democracy Matters" and "Race Matters"… and to top it off he just looks cool.

I heard him speak a few weeks ago in a Baptist church in Harlem and it was then that I knew for sure that I was in the presence of greatness. So, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to shake his hand in that pub. I introduced myself and after much verbal fumbling I finally told him that he inspires me to be a part of the solution. He took my hand with both of his, leaned in and said in a deeply meaningful way “Oh gooood!” We engaged in some small talk where we learned that my advisor here at Drew is his family friend and he told me to tell her “hi”.

Now I know where to find the people who matter and where to mingle with greatness – in a Philly-pub.