Smart People Doing Stupid Things

You don't have to go no farther than to your TV set to see smart people doing stupid things. It's an every day occurrence. I can accept this because I do stupid things myself sometimes and mostly because of Aunt Bessie Foggblunt. Bessie was my daddy's oldest sister and she went as far as two years in college before economic times brought her home to work in the family grocery store. She was a whiz in arithmetic and was up on all the latest news. At one time a group tried to get her to run for the town council and back in that day that was something for a woman to be asked to do. Aunt Bessie was one of the most stable and confident people I ever knew. Except.... Except she had this modesty thing that tended to overrule all her other smarts. She wore her dresses to cover her wrists and ankles, never wore sandals or went barefoot, and always wore gray or black clothes. This wasn't for any particular religious reason. This was strictly because she was shy about her body. From what I could tell by her shape and curves she had nothing to be ashamed of. But that's the way she was. Things got a little out of control when she started wearing sunglasses everywhere, even around the house, even on dark rainy days, even at night. It seems she heard somebody on the radio telling people if they went out in the yard that night they could see the planet Saturn with the naked eye. She later confided to one of her sisters that she had never thought about her eye being naked. So you see this real smart lady had a big hangup and it overwhelmed any and all of her reason. After a few years she gave up the sunglasses. We never figured out why. I made it my mission to complement her on the beauty of her eyes every time I got the chance. Maybe to boost her morale. Or maybe because I was just plain mean back in those days.