I could say it was a chess master I knew once, but that would make no sense since his personal life was a failure and he drank like a sailor on leave.

I could say it was a college professor whose classes I attended, and was truly amazed he could derive equations and prove theorems on a dry erase board without looking at his notes, but that would not be true since he was socially unable to hold a conversation without getting the shakes when I stood near.  

No, the smartest person I ever knew was was a Greyhound bus driver from Yuma Arizona to L.A.  He is probably still there, making lives better without realizing that he is.


 A senior, maybe in his late 60's, driving late at night I was able to strike up a conversation and the topic quickly turned to my relationship troubles, my finances, my family and my future. While operating tons of heavy equipment at high speeds at night, he was able to divine the root of my problems, devise workable though hard-to-accept solutions, and by the end of that journey I had a new direction in my life.

Thing is, he mostly ever just heard my voice from the seat nearest him, and he didn't actually shake my hand and bid adieu until we got to our final destination. 


So there he was.   The smartest man......