Given the choice between ‘stubborn’ and ‘smart,’ I may have to choose ‘stubborn.’ I think it is an undervalued attribute and often takes second-fiddle to more amenable traits. But if I am going to play the desert island game, I will take stubbornness with me, plus Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, and a violin (I have never had the time to learn how to play, and wouldn’t that be the perfect time?).
No one goes through life without getting just....