The
Smartest Person in the World
When I was a child I thought my dad was The Smartest Person
in the World. No one else's dad could make light switches and phone jacks
magically appear. No other dad could create new mechanical and useful devices
from scraps of disparate junk (he MADE me a slide projector!). No one else I
knew liked to do complicated math problems for "fun" like my dad.
If it broke The Smartest Person in the World would fix it.
If it wasn't broke he would take it apart and put it back together and declare
"Oh, I know how they did it. I can make this!" People would drop by
with old TVs, VCRs and other such junk for my dad to put his masterful mind and
adroit hands to work. "I found this in a burned building and thought you'd
want it!" someone would say and sure enough my dad would clean it, fix it
and deposit it somewhere in our house. We were the only family in my working
class town, I'm sure, that had telephones and TVs in every room (even the bathroom);
we were definitely in the running for the oldest living washing machine and
dryer in the State of Louisiana. I'm positive we had the first home computer in
our and all the surrounding parishes (i.e. counties to everyone OUTSIDE
Louisiana). This drove my mom crazy. She wanted new things and wasn't impressed
that he could revive the old or dead. She eventually left him.
The Smartest Person in the World did the traditional dad
things like teach me to ride a bike and kick a soccer ball, but he also taught
me how to look up at the sky and pick out from the dense gauze of the Milky Way
the constellations ("Celestial Navigation" is what he called it). He
taught me to play chess and cards before I could read. And he told us the most
wonderful stories of the happiest days of his life when he was piloting large
naval ships at sea. He told us how he could travel to the Galapagos Island
without the need of any other navigational equipment but the stars and
knowledge of how the ocean currents strayed.
When I was 15 I did not like my dad and felt that he just
"didn't understand me" (who understands a 15 year old!). I was angry
that he made me grow up in the most unforsaken god-awful place in the planet,
that he had no ambition to make a lot of money, that he let my mom walk over
all over him, that we had to be so different from everyone else---I was angry
angry!! My dad and I lived in the same house, but in different islands of
existence. Yet even amidst all that isolation and anger I still thought he was
The Smartest Person in the World. The poor man hadn't a clue about how to
handle his daughters; he still doesn't most of the time, it just all matters
less. Those teenage years were necessary in order to reach these current calm
waters of old age, this affection, this cherishing and valuing of the
unblinking love my father provides...that unconditional pure love no other man
has ever been able to give me.
In college I realized my dad may not be The Smartest Person
in the World--perhaps maybe Stephen Hawkings and Carl Sagan might be smarter.
Yet although my dad just looked like a man that was successfully ordinary and
blended in with every other successfully ordinary man of his generation, no one
really knew the life he had given up for us, how he wrestled opposition his
whole life, or that his IQ stood at 160. No one here knew how he had survived
typhoid fever, military coups, gave up a respected career and left his beloved
homeland to live in secrecy in the states. How despite his superior
intelligence he endured racism and xenophobia in the states. How he had to
watch his marriage turned ugly and have his two headstrong daughters challenge
his every thought and wish.
Yet his struggles were not in vain. He instilled us with the
importance of an education and a respect of all people. He taught me knowledge
comes from discussion, not conclusion and exclusion. He taught me not to let
your fears and hatred of those that are different to be my guide, and not to
invoke God to justify any hatred. He was the first Feminist I knew. He is a
Democrat, an Atheist and the Most Decent Person in the World. And he gave me
something that will always remain inside me--those tough and indestructible
genes of fortitude that tell me I shall be able to bear any of the difficult
circumstances that come across my path too.
I want to tell him how touched I was by all his acts of
kindness--to me, my sister, my children and all his loyal friends. I want to
tell him how much I appreciate all he has done for me, all that he is
continuing to do. I have a rushing sense from all the things I want to tell
him; but I know I would just embarrass him. So I'll simply say, Happy Father’s
Day Daddy, The Smartest Person in The World to me!
Memphis Saltos
Berkeley, CA
memphis_saltos@humminggirl.com