Linus* once stated "There is no greater burden than a high potential." I felt that deeply when I read it in the 60s. I am more ambivalent about it now. There are greater burdens. I suppose that one is common enough among the children of the chattering classes that it deserves at least a mention.
The adversity being blamed in that conversation was ADHD. Yes, that can interfere with you reaching your full potential. So can being blind. So can being 2SD too short if you are male. So can chronic alopecia, or schizophrenia, or being born in Tajikstan, or a hundred other things. Hardly any of us reach our full potential.
And...potential for what? Wealth? Beauty? Education? Strength?
We should be more concerned that we don't reach our full potential for Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude; Faith, Hope, and Charity.
5 comments:
The Weight of Glory ?
To reach one’s full potential is to have none left; and for a material being, the end of all potential comes only with death. Best to keep at least some of it in reserve.
"None left" assumes that it's static. I think of the "full potential" of a race car as its top speed.
The point of focusing on virtue is well taken. Virtue does take an integrated life.
James,
I was thinking of Aristotle and his Unmoved Movers. They're able to be fully active, i.e. non-potential, because they aren't material. Material has the potential to be this-or-that; even a race car at top speed is potentially other things (such as a ball of fire, if the driver makes a mistake).
But perhaps AVI's real point is best thought of in terms of transcending potential rather than 'realizing' it. Moving beyond the material, to the activity of the soul.
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