Willie Sidis - Boy Genius

Willie Sidis*

Well, this is another Grandpa Mounteer musing.  I want to  tell you another true story of a real person who found himself on the wrong side of the life granted to him by a loving Heavenly Father.

William James Sidis

Willie was born in New York in 1898.  He showed unbelievable intelligence right from the beginning. He had learned the alphabet by the time he was six months old.  By the time he was two he was reading adult books ( not that kind of adult books).  At four he could typewrite in beautiful English and French.  He graduated from high school when he was eight years old, where he had spent most of his time helping teachers grade math papers.

After high school, Willie applied to Harvard University - at eight years of age.  Harvard rejected his application because they thought he was too young.  They told him to apply again in a year or two, when he was a little older.  So, he waited until he was 11 and applied again.  During the intervening three years he read books in Greek, Latin, German, Russian, French, Turkish, and Armenian.

At Harvard he got straight "A's." While still taking classes, he lectured in mathematics. Newspapers of the day commented on the fact that only a few mathematicians in the world could keep up with him.  He was on his way to becoming one of the greatest geniuses of the world.  What a future he had ahead of him.  Only Albert Einstein rivaled him in mathematics!

But during those years at Harvard, things happened to him that changed the course of his life. Newsmen hounded him, wanting his story, asking questions about how he liked being so smart, and how it felt to be so different from his classmates.  His classmates often made fun of him, laughing at his shyness and his intellect. He felt everyone seemed to resent him because he was different.

Finally, he decided the only way to get along in the world was to become an ordinary, average man. So at about 16, after receiving his law degree, he dropped out of Harvard and began just drifting around the country, doing jobs that required no brain work. Willie tried as best he could to be just a regular fellow, never accepting any positions that would require leadership or intellect.

He died in a rented room near Boston in 1946.  He was 48 years old, his mind largely unused. Once, not long before he died, a fellow worker recognized him and asked him about Einstein's Theory of Relativity which had just been published. He held up the galley proof for Willie to see. He glanced at it, reading it upside down. His only comment was that the writer had made an error in the equation, the 7 should be a 6!

Think what a contribution he could have made to the world, especially during World War II!  Instead, all he left to us was his collection of streetcar transfers from all over the U.S.

Willie was one of the greatest geniuses of the world, but he refused to use his God given talents for the betterment of mankind. He failed because he was afraid of the criticism of others.  He couldn't take it!

There is an important message here for you and I.  Have we ever been criticized or made fun of because we refused to drink or smoke or use foul language?  Has it ever been hard for us to not go along to get along? Have we ever turned away from correct gospel principles because someone made fun of them or us?  Like Willie, do we turn away because we are afraid to be different, because we are afraid to be criticized by our peers?

Hopefully not, because we must not, because we know what Willie did not.  We know that every person born into this world comes with a divine destiny. Each of us was called and set apart in the spirit world to come to earth and act out our part in God's eternal plan.  He gives us the talents and abilities to accomplish what we were called to do.  The problem is that we can't recall what that assignment was.  But this we do know; the assignment involved service to our fellow man.  If God's purpose is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man," then we are to play a part in that purpose.

Therefore, we must develop our talents and abilities as fully as we can and use them to benefit mankind.  As time goes on, we will see how the Lord uses us and our talents in furthering His work. This Willie never understood, as smart as he was.   Thus he wasted his life and the enormous genius he was given.

It takes strength of character and a sound grounding in the gospel to stay on the right side of the life given to us by our loving Heavenly Father.  And, we need guidance from above to fulfill our divine destiny; t hus the need for the Gift of the Holy Ghost and a righteous life that allows that spirit to work with us to guide and direct our lives.

When you are challenged, and you will be, and when you are afraid, remember the story of Willie Sidis.



*From the article by Hollowell Bowser, "The Devourers of Genius."

AEthelred

I want to begin this blog with a story about one of our ancestors. I have told his story many times over the years, so some of you may have heard it before.  But it is a good story and very meaningful as we apply its implications in our lives today.

AEthelred was an early king of England.  He was the grandson of Alfred the Great who had united England and succeeded in stopping the invasion of the Vikings in Northern England. He came to the throne in 978 at the age of 10 years.  As a result of the successes of Alfred, AEthelred became king during a time of peace and plenty.

  

He grew up loving to hunt, ride, joust, never giving much concern for the kingdom he ruled or the Vikings who were once again beginning to make raids on Northern England.  He was called the "Unready" by later historians because he received very bad advice about his kingdom from his counselors. Consequently, when the Vikings came, he was not prepared. He lost his kingdom and had to pay tribute to the Danish Vikings for many years thereafter.

AEthelred is important to us because he is our ancestor. My grandfather's name was Allred, and he traces his ancestry all the way back to AEthelred the Unready and beyond.

AEthelred's story is important to us because it contains important advice to all his decendants, including you and I. First, we must realize that life is more than fun and games or even digital devices. We must take advantage of opportunities in our schooling, in our work, in all aspects of our lives.  And secondly, in the process we must be wary of the advice we receive along the way and the people who want to advise us.

There are always people who want to tell us how to vote, what to eat and drink, that we are too fat or too thin, how to improve our looks, who our friends should be, but, especially, what to think.

Make sure the person giving the advice is credible, trustworthy, and is himself worthy of the spirit.  If we do this, we will always be "ready" to make the right decisions. And we will not lose our kingdoms because we listened to bad advice.

As a footnote to AEthelred's story, let me add one more anecdote.

Several years ago Mary Lou and I were doing sealings in the Oakland, California Temple.  All the kings and queens of England have had their temple work done many, many years ago. But many of them had never had their children sealed to them.  On this particular occasion, we were sealing children to parents, as researched and organized by our oldest daughter Janet.  

Suddenly, the sealer called out the name of AEthelred the Unready. Mary Lou and I were kneeling at the altar and couldn't believe our ears.  I was to act in behalf of AEthelred and Mary Lou his wife. Together, we had sealed to them all of their children.  It was a thrill to us because they were our direct ancestors and because I had told his story so many times before.

Afterward, we wondered if AEthelred had accepted the temple work done for him and his family.  We hoped this time he was properly prepared  and that he was in deed "ready."