I was joking around in another thread in response to “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants,” attributed to Sir Isaac Newton.
My joke was that giants are so darn nice.
But that tickled my brain a bit.
I started thinking about giants — specifically the kinds of people who do great things or think great things.
They really are very nice people.
Now, I’ll admit up front that I could be cherry-picking, so proceed accordingly.
In my experience, the “giants” in the above quote are people who have done great things and people who have learned great things and people who have thought great things. They are giants in that they see farther than us ordinary folks.
They aren’t magical or anything, by which I mean that they aren’t free of the various human foibles.
But they are usually very nice.
If you ever have the pleasure to find someone like this (and I’m sure you know at least one), and you ask them about the great things they’re doing or the great things they’re thinking about, they usually are happy to talk about it. they want to talk about it.
They want to share.
The ones I know — they really smart people — they love helping me see farther. It’s as if they want company on this fabulous journey. And they don’t mind sharing that space with others.
I like that. A lot.
In fact, it’s inspiring.
There are giants upon whose shoulders we stand, so we can see even farther. As nice as they are to have not only allowed us, but encouraged us to stand on their shoulders, I think it’s equally important that we make the same offer to others as well.
No matter who we are, someone is a giant upon whose shoulders we stand and learn and no matter who we are, there is someone who would love to see as much as we can, if only we’re nice enough to let them hop on our shoulders.
So, find the giants in your world, and talk with them and see what they’re seeing. They are genuinely nice people!
Also, be a giant in someone else’s world. Listen for voices that crave to see what you’re seeing. Be a genuinely nice person about it!
Purely as an aside, I’m also coming to the tentative conclusion that this willingness to share vision and this willingness to spread vision is a characteristic of such people. So now, when I run across people who aren’t willing to share such visions, or aren’t willing to share such visions with lots of people, or who just plain aren’t nice, I’m of the opinion that they aren’t actually giants in any sense of the word. They’re something else. Something I don’t have to go into right now, other than to suggest to not be them.