neither living nor dead

[levity]

An actual conversation:

Mother: Jill! Pao! You're not smart.
Me: Bakit nanaman?
Mother: I spent years telling you that you're smart, I'm just telling you you're not smart now.
Me: Okay.
Mother: Because there's a study in this book-
Me: Oh! You've been reading the parenting books again.
Mother: The Nurture Shock?
Me: It was in the bathroom.
Mother: Dad left it in the bathroom. Anyway, what was I saying, was that they learned that kids who were told that they were smart tended to end up thining that if they put effort into something, it meant that they weren't smart after all, which I think you (points at me) are a prime example of.
Me: Yes. I know. I figured that out myself.
Mother: Before you read the book?
Me: Yes. In high school. (Note: This is not exactly true. In theory, I figured this out in high school, and absorbed it in my bones this summer of embryology. I still haven't quite managed to put the theory into practice.)
Mother: That still doesn't make you smart.

I am not sure that there is anyone in this world I love as much as my mother.