A mark of genius

I just remembered a story about Sir Thomas Beecham. The world renowned composer was rushing across a hotel foyer when he met a distinguished woman he felt he should have recognized. He bade the lady a good day and went to get into the lift. As he was stepping through the lift door, he remembered the woman had a brother, so he leaned out of the lift and said, “By the way, what is your brother doing these days?”

“Oh, he’s still the king” replied Princess Victoria.

True genius comes with a true humility, people so caught up with their field of expertise that they do not worry about trivial priorities of the materialistic world – the photographs of Albert Einstein also illustrating how a true genius displays an indifference to the sort of values many now regarded as important.