My husband and I are fairly intelligent.  I would say that our levels of intelligence rarely intersect in terms of subject matter, though.  I’m history, language, art, culture and psychology intelligent and he’s math, science, physics, money, social shmoozing and economics intelligent.

In other words, he’s the kind of intelligent that makes real money while I’m the kind of intelligent that makes people glad that I’m on their team during Trivial Pursuit or Cranium.  Luckily, I was smart enough to enter into a parasitic relationship with his kind of smart.  Plus, I love him.  Yeah, yeah.

On any given day, you might find me repeating the following quote, “Ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.”  (Laughing at myself because the truth is, on any given day, you’ll probably hear me screaming, “What the …?”  But, humor me, people.)

Tariq’s favorite quote?  Hands down, “Free market capitalism is the only true path to prosperity.”

Unfortunately, for the most part, we rarely recognize the complementary nature of our interests.  We refuse to accept that together, we could be the smartest person alive.  Or, at least, in the Top 10,000.

Instead, we argue.

Say, for example, when conversation veers toward global economy.

Tariq loves to elaborate on the impending Tiger-Dragon (India-China) domination of this planet.  Something about how because labor is expensive in the United States.. How we don’t actually produce a lot in the way of tangible goods.  How our pesky rules (such as don’t employ five year olds to make soccer balls at three cents a week) inhibit the practice of pure capitalism.  So, he says, it only follows that we aren’t going to be able to compete globally in the next fifty years.

I think he throws in a lot of other very interesting points about population explosion, an increasingly educated workforce abroad and industry diversification in there, but the sound of the “Star Spangled Banner” blaring in my head in defiance of what I perceive as anti-patriotic rhetoric makes it very difficult to concentrate fully on anything he’s saying.

This photo I came across on my latest obsession FAILblog (thanks for that  NYCWD) summarizes how I usually respond to all that “China this, India that” talk.

Bask in the eloquence that is me.

As for India… Permit me to boost their already magnificent public relations campaign in the U.S. by promoting the PBS special, “The Story of India.” It’s a six part series that began airing on January 6th.  But, as always, with PBS there are plenty of encore presentations.  Check it out.  I’m way to excited about this show to be considered remotely cool anymore.