Your Unique Intelligence

Green Bethune was blind. He grew up in slavery. Until age six he could not walk or speak and contemporaries described him as “idiotic”. He never attended school and was incapable of learning anything… anything but music. At the age of four Greene would sit behind a piano and play beautiful tunes. Without any instruction whatsoever he could listen to a piece of music, then sit down and play it through note for note, accent for accent without error and without interruption.

At seven he began a concert career and at age eleven he played for the President at the White House. At sixteen he went on his first European concert tour. His musical ability was legendary. Green would listen to a musical piece and after only one hearing play it perfectly. Despite a limited verbal vocabulary, he knew more than 7000 music works by heart including composers such as Bach, Chopin and Verdi. He improvised on what he heard and added his own touch to the creations. Restless and explosive his talent showed no sign of abating throughout his life.

Green Bethune was a music genius. He loved the piano and developed his gift with passion. Wherever he was, you could hear him playing at all hours of the day and night – with or without an audience.

William Sidis could read the New York Times at eighteen months. At age two he taught himself Latin and by age three he had mastered Greek. By the time Sidis was an adult he could speak more than forty languages and dialects. He gained entrance to Harvard University when he was only eleven, giving lectures in four dimensional bodies. He graduated Magna Cum Laude at age sixteen and became the youngest Harvard Professor ever. He deduced the possibility of black holes more than twenty years before the first studies on the subject were published.

Soon after his appointment he gave up his tenure at Harvard and from there wandered from one menial job to another. No ground-breaking new theories, no prestigious prizes, no scientific advancements for the common good. Sidis was socially reclusive and he had a painful childhood growing up as a child prodigy. Aimless, with no partner or family, one of the most powerful and promising intellects of the modern era died quietly at an early age. 

Bethune and Sidis are two extreme examples of specific intelligence. But the lessons are different. Bethune shows how combining your passion and unique ability leads to continued fulfillment. Sidis, despite his enormous early promise, found his drive fading and he left an unremarkable legacy.

We all have a unique intelligence; it may be caring for others, sporting prowess, the gift of writing well, the ability to connect with others or the gift organizing complex activities. Perhaps you are a mathematical whizz, an animal “whisperer”, a painter or you have learned a unique aspect of music. Maybe you are an excellent leader or a highly original artist. Perhaps you are a super parent, perhaps you have the gift of true wisdom. 

Whatever it is, you have an ability that is unique.

But maybe we are not always thankful for our gifts; maybe we don’t always continue to revel in our ability. Maybe we don’t always apply it for the benefit of others. Sidis did not. Bethune did. He was blind and he was a slave yet Green Bethune never stopped playing his piano.