Purpose, Potential, and za Peoples

I have been thinking a lot about purpose. I am slightly below average on functionality and slightly above average on intellect. Slightly. At least that is what they told me in high school. I'm starting have my doubts. I had to use spell check on the word intellect. I do have seizures. I think I am slightly below average on brain cells these days. I like to think that my true genius lies in emotional intelligence. It's really all I got going for me.

  Either way, I'm pretty average. For the most part I am living the life that my parents expected that I would. A little more in some places, a little less in others.  I of course had some visions of grandeur in my teenage years. Who doesn't right? Eventually we all have to find balance in the reality that our lives are what they are. I will never be a famous musician, never write a Pulitzer prize winning article, never visit the moon, and never win an academy award.
  Thank heavens! I'm a home body. I like the simple life. Those things would require too much energy.

I still struggle sometimes with the idea that I am missing my "purpose". I see people my age doing fabulous things in their lives. I feel like- wow, that person has done it! They FOUND IT! The mystery of their purpose is SOLVED!

The more I learn about people, read journals and histories of people who have already finished their time here on earth, the more I realize that nobody ever really finds their purpose. I have started looking at life in a different way. I think the best you can hope for is to make your life as comfortable as you can, do what you can to make it a little bit better, and find a way to survive the rest of it.

For some people this means marrying someone that makes you smile and feel special, having a couple of kids that you hopefully won't screw up too bad,  having a job that makes you feel like you are contributing to the world around you in a small way, and getting the thoughts that fill your head up ooze out onto a meaningless blog every now and again. (This is all hypothetical of course.)

For other people this means devoting their life to something they are passionate about, putting all of their energy into a cause, watching their lives contribute and better the thousands of lives around them.

I think the world views the latter of these two types of people as more valuable as the first.  I disagree. I ENTIRELY disagree.

Potential in a person is a lot like potential energy. I don't actually know a lot about potential energy. I'm basing all of this theory on what I can remember from my 7th grade science class. But from what I gather, some objects have a greater potential energy than others. This doesn't necessarily mean that the object with more potential energy is a better object.

 I think this is how it works with people. The point of life is not to have the GREATEST potential. The point of life is to find out what your potential energy is and to just do what you can to reach that.

I can appreciate a good story about someone was were told they had less potential than they actually had, and fulfilled their potential. They are inspiring. But, who is to say that that person is of more worth than the person whose potential was exactly what everyone thought it was. Is a life only of value if they exceed everyone's expectations? And what about those people who everyone expects a person's potential is far greater than it actually is? Are these people failures?

Wow. All this talk potential talk is starting to confuse me. What exactly IS potential? Who decides how much we have? Is potential like a solid box that once it's filled it's filled? That doesn't seem right. Or is it more like a uterus and it can stretch and grow to carry what it needs to? (Pardon the analogy.) I guess stomach might be the more appropriate and gender neutral body part. This is all metaphorical though, so anything goes really. Plus, the idea of my potential fitting in my uterus makes me smile.

Well, I'm a spiritual person, so of course I would go with the answer that the only person who truly knows our potential is God. It's our job to touch base with him and he can clue us in. But, in that regard, our potential is endless. I imagine our collective metaphorical spiritual uteri, or stomach if that makes you feel more comfortable, can get pretty giant!  But, I tend to think that has more to do with the afterlife than this life.

So, let's just focus on this life. Let's keep things bite size.

Anyways, this is all leading somewhere. I think that EVERY person who is even working towards their "potential" should be celebrated! I have decided that my purpose for the next couple of weeks or months or however long I feel like it- is to celebrate people! I want to celebrate people I look up to and admire. Some of them will be people you have heard of. Some of them will be people you probably will never meet. Some of them will be dead and some of them living. Some of them will have a physical uterus and some of them will have a metaphorical uterus. I can guarantee all of them will have a stomach of some sort.

So- get ready! Get pumped! The journey begins....sometime soon. I have to fulfill some other purposes in my life now; namely, putting physical food in my physical children's stomachs.