The Duck Tours factor

We have had a wet March. Apparently it is one of the wettest since they began recording rainfall amounts, and there has been quite a bit of flooding. On my way to pick up my daughter at school, I saw a sign “Road Closed” and below it, in typical New England fashion, the caveat “NOT KIDDING!” was spray-painted.

Around here, this is probably necessary. Everyone thinks his or her vehicle is second-string Duck Tours material. Until they find out that it isn’t.

I am reading a book right now called The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Many of my friends have already read this; I am about 2/3 of the way through it, and am pretty upset. The book discusses the providential effects of being born in certain times and places- I have clearly been derelict when planning my birth year and location. When I went to my class reunion, the committee tried to find the most famous of us. They had to settle on the one who looked the most famous. I admit that she was hot, particularly for 10 years out of high school, but I can’t remember her name for the life of me.

But luck aside- and luck plays a big part in dictating whether your school provides a decent education for you, or whether you make the cutoff for a sports team or get popped into the next group making you one of the oldest and best coordinated- cultural and familial factors play a huge part in whether you are successful. I messed up there, too, by having parents who were both authoritarian and deferent to authority figures, and who never felt in control of their life situations.

Growing up, though, I have always felt that hard work mattered more than talent (and it does appear to matter more, although talent and hard work are a deadly combination). Those were the two variables that were, in effect, the x and the y axis of success. Probably, I held to those because those are two variables that you can control. You can decide how hard you are going to work. You can do some soul-searching and hone in on what you are most talented at. But overcoming the culture that you have been steeped in from before birth… that seems like something that would be nearly impossible to do on your own.

Have I not reached my full potential? I wonder if success and potential are like comparing apples and oranges. “Success” is a cultural definition- a certain level of fame, or money, or even notoriety in some cases. It is an arbitrary point, and while fluid it isn’t abstract.

Potential is more abstract. It’s not like a vase that can hold a certain amount of water, and then the water spills out- the point of attained potential is always beyond the tips of your fingers. I think it’s safe to say that work increases potential. The harder that you try to become competent at something, the better that you prepare yourself to master that- and something else. So maybe the best you can do is too fluid to attempt to define- the container itself is elastic.

There probably comes a time when you need to stop trying to define these things and just drive into the flood. Wish me luck, and tow me out if I get stuck, would you?

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