On Having Potential

End of the busy-ness has consumed my mind. The situation has only been exacerbated through developing a hernia. There is no correlation between my body's happenstance versus my mental confusion of course. I read that there is a genetic predisposition which is validated by the constantly odd realization that everything my Dad and Mom have had body-wise, I eventually encounter in my own life. Perhaps it is a simple way of reminding me to observe filial piety.

The older I get, the more disconnected I seem to feel my mind and body have become. My mind seems to think it is completely weird that the body in which it lives is constantly in a state of decay; meanwhile, my body could care less what my mind thinks of course, because it can't think at all without the mind and thus really has no perspective on the matter. Aging is great because your mind gets so much more agile in the conceptual dimensions (memory does indeed degrade however) so it is a pity that the body doesn't follow along a similar growth curve. Or maybe that is the blessing -- as your body fades, your mind gets to spend more on its own development and doesn't have to manage the physical plant the way it used to in the younger years. I guess that makes sense.

A visitor recently told me a story told by a prominent young leader. It went something like this:

"When you're young you are told that you have so much potential to offer; when you're older, instead you're told how great you are for what you did in the past. The key is ... to always be told you have potential."

I hope you realize your true potential in the little remainder of this year of 2007.

S I M P L I C I T Y by John Maeda at the MIT Media Lab