Potential

I saw a blind guy today, walking down the stairs into the Bart station. He was holding on to the handrail so he could tell when there was a landing and when there were more stairs. He was just going about his business the same way we all do. Only for him, it's a challenge.

The rest of us go about our business doing what we do, taking for granted how simple our daily tasks are for us to accomplish. For that blind guy, what we do takes a whole lot more effort and concentration. He has to work hard just to survive in our society. We just sort of coast along without really trying.

It occurred to me that this is a pretty sad state of affairs. Most of us don't really do anything with our lives. We work, we eat, we play a little. If we wind up with a nice house or a fancy fishing boat, we kid ourselves that we've really accomplished something. Then we read about some guy in the Sunday supplement who sailed around the world on a homemade sailboat when he was 16 or something, and we say "Wow, that guy's really something," and go on with our everyday lives. "Everyday lives;" how pitiful that sounds. Isn't it a shame we don't really live our lives to the fullest?

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