Genius!

There's only ever going to be one Einstein.  The mold broke after Astaire and Rogers. No bulb will ever burn with the same brightness as Edison.  As much as we may long for one there is no clone of Curie and no one ever met another Etta.

True genius is rare.  Or is it?

Of course it's true that the genius of people like Michelangelo and Mozart isn't common.  Austins don't abound.  Roosevelts are rare. Tolstoys don't grow on trees.  But is it their particular genius that we recall--or that they became known for it?  What if the next symphony is living on Skid Row?  What if the cure for cancer is working a minimum wage job because she only speaks Spanish?  What if....

What if genius isn't rare?

The truth is, each of us is a genius--a genius at being ourselves.  No one does it better (or, as Oscar Wilde quipped, "Be yourself.  Everyone else is already taken").  And each of us has, built in, a genius that is unmatched.  The trick is in recognizing it...and our gift to the world is in acting on it.

Many are taught early on that it's best to keep things hidden--under a bushel, out of harm's way.  We don't want to risk it.  And sadder still, many have learned, over and over, that there is no opportunity for them to shine--their genius oppressed because of their state of mind, the color of their skin or the curl of their hair.  But none of that takes away from the reality that each person on this planet has something to give. 

Maybe you can imagine a world in which the genius of every one of us is realized.

I think you can.  You're smart that way.

(c) Fiechter, 2015.  Thanks for reading...feel free to share.  Permission for republication is reserved. 

Born Blind?

"We are born color-blind." 

It's a recurring theme among people of good will in the wake of yet another horrifying and tragic act of terrorism against innocent people who have had to bear the terrifying burden of racism.  As we struggle to understand, as we are stunned and saddened by our own complicity, and as we search for a way forward many want to remind us that hatred and violence are taught and learned. 

"No one is born a racist," they say.

The science is more complicated and challenging.  The reality is, human beings have evolved with an uncanny ability to instantly recognize difference.  Before our conscious brains are even aware of it, we have made note of our differences and marked our territory.  It's a trait that evolved for our survival in a world in which there was little interaction between villages and cultures at a time when the ability to instantly recognize differences would mean the difference between life and death: survival. 

We are not born color-blind.  That's the problem.  We are born with a keen awareness of our differences.  The challenge is really what we do with that.  If we spend our time denying it, we'll be fooling ourselves and we'll get nowhere.  If we go on thinking it's OK to remain separate because of our differences, we'll all die a long and painful death.  But if we see our differences and celebrate them, work to understand one-another and join together as a single humanity to make this world better for all people, well, then, we might just find that way forward so many of us long for.

"Love your neighbor as yourself."

A Little Self-Control

Everything about her was larger than life: her laugh, her car, her hairdo--and most of all, her heart.  It's really hard to imagine that she's gone. 

It didn't take very long, I'm told: a winter diagnosis, a spring death.  And while the countless lives she touched live on all the better for having known her, today she has me reflecting on how little control we have in life.  Here today and gone tomorrow: what have we to say?

As it turns out, a lot.  True, there is much in life that is out of our control, and we really do live much happier lives when we heed the instruction of Wisdom to let these things go.  But we are fools wasting precious opportunities if we think there is nothing over which we have control.

My friend knew that.  That's why she spent so much time loving people.  It didn't necessarily change what they thought of her, but it did change what she thought of them.  You see, if there's one thing we DO have control over in this life, it is how we treat others.  Love is a verb--a call to action. 

I guess sometimes someone has to die to get us to notice.

"Love your neighbor as yourself."

(c) Fiechter, 2015.  Thanks for reading.  It's nice to share--so please do.  But remember to ask first if you're reprinting or publishing.