Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there lived a Princess who was beautiful, intelligent, charming, funny, kind, generous, sincere, athletic, and faithful (and overall, a person with a ton of potential to contribute to society).
Amongst all of her amazing traits, it was the Princess's keen mind that should have given her an enormous advantage in all aspects of her life. When facing a challenge at home, when meting out justice to the people of her land, when negotiating with emissaries from distant lands, when learning new things at school, - in all aspects of her life - she could bring to bear her vast intellectual power and always ALWAYS prevail.
She could, but she rarely did.
You see, the Princess found what others would call "challenges" to be not challenging at all, and for that reason, quite dull and uninteresting to her. She found it far more enjoyable to stifle her thought processes, to avoid concentrating on things, to choose instinct and emotion over intellect, and to (more or less) avoid the use of her mighty brain.
So when she was asked by her parents to do anything at home that required any thinking, she'd inevitably answer "I'm too tired. You do it."
When people with disputes came to her to help settle them, she'd simply yawn and say "You bore me, figure it out yourselves."
And when emissaries from distant lands would come with elaborate proposals, she'd roll her eyes and say "Whatever."
When the Princess did decide to apply her mental acuity to anything, it was usually in school. Year after year, she'd get new teachers speaking about new and exciting subjects, and new books to read, and new problems to solve - and year after year, the 'new' would hold her attention for a little while. When that happened, she'd rouse her dormant brain and do wondrous things - learning at a remarkable rate and quickly surpassing what any of her classmates could do. Then she'd inevitably get tired of trying so hard, she'd discover exactly what mark constituted 'good enough', and expend exactly the right amount of effort to hit that mark and not a single percentage point higher.
Doing better than necessary was boring and quite repugnant to the Princess.
As time passed, most of her family, all of her people, and even the emissaries from distant lands began to dismiss the Princess as just another beautiful, charming, funny, kind, generous, sincere, athletic, and faithful person with only average intelligence. "Shame," they'd say, "if she were smarter, she'd be quite the force to be reckoned with".
Only her parents remembered the Princess's remarkable brain. And whenever they'd try to motivate the Princess to exercise that mighty organ, she'd shrug and say "I don't wanna." So after a time, they too gave up on her.
Until the day finally came when the Princess woke up to her situation. She was older now and living a fairly average Princess's existence, when she quite accidentally met up with an old friend from school. This friend, a girl with no remarkable talents, was doing amazing things with her life - travelling, inventing, discovering medical breakthroughs, speaking in front of vast crowds on just about any subject imaginable, and regularly winning awards that should instead have been graced upon the Princess. The only remarkable thing about this friend was her work ethic - in all other respects, the Princess far outshone her.
Being as intelligent as she was, the truth suddenly dawned for the Princess while she was sitting and sipping tea with this friend: "What have I done with my life?" she asked herself. "I have frittered away my amazing cognitive capabilities, and not only have I become a completely average person, even the average people are now far surpassing what I'm accomplishing. Thinking bored me, and now I've become a boring person. I've been too lazy to expend the necessary mental effort that would lead me to a wildly successful life, and now life is passing me by."
Her friend's voice interrupted the insightful moment: "Say, I've got an idea. I remember you used to be pretty good at biology. Why don't you come back to my lab and see if you can help me with a really vexing medical problem I've been puzzling over for months?".
The Princess's mind began to race: "Is this my second chance? Can I now make a long-overdue change in my life? Is this the challenge to which I will finally rise?"
Then she remembered her plans for that evening: lying on a soft couch, listening to a little music, and watching a little television. She looked up at her friend and replied, "I think not".
And that was the last anyone ever saw or heard of the Princess.
Afterword from David: There's nothing wrong with mediocrity, and there's nothing wrong with choosing not to make use of your God-given intelligence. But if you're going to lie down on the couch with the best view of the TV, that's just not fair to the rest of the family. And delete your shows from the PVR after you've watched them. We're over 80% full.
And, oh yeah, if you read this Dawn, please tell your brother that I always think of him and his stupid joke when I hear the words "I think not".
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