My nerd universe mainly revolves around science fiction, video games and a little technology. Unfortunately, my nerdclinations aren’t going to better society.
Memorizing the Star Wars crawls isn’t going to cure cancer.
Becoming a level 20 warrior in Dragon Age: Origins isn’t going to find clean, renewable energy.
Figuring out how to control my iTunes from my phone isn’t going to feed the hungry.
My nerdclinations make me happy but they’re not going to make the world a better place. Here are some practical nerds who actually have something to offer.
Doctors
I took biology in college and barely passed the class with a 70.8%. I had never been happier with a C minus in my entire life. Even though I had no desire to be a doctor, that class reassured me that there wasn’t enough malpractice insurance in the world to cover my biological ineptitude. I’m fascinated by the amount of knowledge doctors hold inside of their heads. Even if they’re not as exciting as House, doctors ability to diagnose patients and get them on the road to recovery is amazing. Obviously I’d be more excited to have a robot doctor like the one who replaced Luke’s hand, but until that day comes I’ll be content with the practical nerdiness of doctors.
Engineers
I’m sure people who drive trains are cool but I’m not talking about train engineers. I am fascinated by the type of engineers who design buildings, planes, cars and everything else that makes up our modern society. It doesn’t even take something like the Petronas Towers in Malaysia to impress me; I’m impressed by my apartment and Target. I have no idea how buildings stand up or how planes fly. I’m just like Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer; a simple man who doesn’t understand how the simplest modern marvels work. For all I know, it’s a level three fire spell that makes my horseless carriage go.
Hebrew and Greek Scholars
I took Hebrew and Greek in seminary and I can’t imagine spending any more time with those languages than I had to. There was nothing exciting about conjugating, parsing verbs and translating. If it was up to me to translate the original texts of the Bible into English, then we would all have a really great excuse for not reading the Bible. I don’t know how anyone could get excited over Hebrew and Greek but I’m glad they do. I’m thankful for those scholarly nerds who make it their lives’ work to ensure that our translations of the Bible are accurate and true to the original texts. I also tip my hat to the Greek scholars, because they have to put up with people constantly making the joke, “It really is all Greek to you.” LOL. 🙁
There is no practical application for my favorite nerdclinations and I’m all right with that. My nerdclinations are intended to relax my mind and help me unwind when life gets busy. Even though I’m not one, I’m very thankful for practical nerds because they have a much larger impact on this world than the practical jocks.
What practical nerd knowledge fascinates you?
Actually, there are several different nerd groups out there that are making awesome impacts on the world. The Vlogbrothers, founders of a youtube community of people who happily call themselves nerdfighters, have rallied cries to help thousands of people. They have sent cargo planes to Haiti, started a yearly youtube campaign called Project for Awesome that has raised awareness for hundreds if not thousands of charities, and helps promote literacy among many other concepts. Their whole mission is “to decrease world suck.”
Then there are other groups like the HPA, an organization of Harry Potter fans who believe in taking the ideals in the novels, like respecting others and leading the fight for good to defeat evil, and applying them to real world situations . They fight for free trade, the rights of workers in the third world, literacy, they try to stomp out depression and eating disorders, give money to major world disasters, and many more things. Although I disagree on the aspect of the HPA that fights for gay marriage.
Overall, I’m very proud to be a part of fandoms that like to help people, I didn’t even get into the Buffy and Twilight blood drives. I think it’s neat to see that nerds, because as a people we are very obsessive, take our drive to express into kind things for the world. I’ve also had opportunities to be an “ambassador for Christ” in these places. I’ve been the only Christian at a HPA gathering and the only Christian at an Orange County meet up of Harry Potter fans. People were actually surprised to see a Christian at the HPA one and at both I apologized for a lot of hate presented and minorly talked about the Christ metaphor in the books. Also I used to Project for Awesome to bring up both Voice of the Martyrs and the need for evangelism.
I love seeing nerdiness leading to good 🙂