Wonders Of Human Potentials
“How vast are the potentials of a Computer. Imagine what it can do, perform. What I can handle, know and am capable of, is but a trifle compared to the abilities of a computer. To calculate, to write, delete, copy, paste, print, save, to communicate by internet, download, upload, connect to TV, Radio, play CD, VCD, and a lot more.” So I said to him who was repairing my computer.
“Certainly. Did you know that what we use and are capable of, of our brains is perhaps but a ten percent of its potentials? So someone said,” he added.
For days this thought was hovering over me. And I came to the conclusion, that it wasn’t our brains only but also our body was immensely vast, as a sea in potentials. And that of which we are capable of and use is almost nothing to what it can do, achieve.
Just imagine! Every language of perhaps more than a hundred thousand languages in the world could be learned by any one, but what we master are but some three, four, … ten languages. Every science of so many sciences could be learned, every music instrument, every sport, every art, every …, but what we’re capable of are just a few of them.
Mozart would just be an ordinary man were he born in an age without the music we now know. Van Gogh, Einstein just a farmer or a hunter were there no art of painting, no science. Their extraordinary potentials are unknown, hidden. They couldn’t have developed their talents.
It’s our brains that created the computer, the design of cities, space stations and all the things created around us.
What feet are capable of we only know when seeing invalids cook, shower, write, paint, handle a computer, drive a motor car, nurse a baby, raise kids, play on the guitar with their feet.
And I wondered whether there was one who ever was stupid, dull, dense but then turned out to be a renowned violinist, stage manager, cinematographer, … as a larva, pupae who came out a butterfly. Perhaps they’re ignorant about their potentialities or have no opportunity to exploit them to the full. The human potentials are so vast, almost unlimited, infinite except limited by one’s lifetime as is a tree that we cut off its branch always will sprout many new young shoots as though awakening after their slumbering, dormant potentials. When there was no bike invented, who could know that every one has the potential as cyclist. In the age of 10.000 A.D when we might be living in space-cities and space-travel to other planets and the moon, …how could we know what our new awakening potentials will be, what we’re capable of in that age.
Just think of it, there’s still such a lot that I would like to learn, to know: the bahasa Sunda (Sunda language) to be able to enjoy a Wayang Golek (puppet) performance, Chinese to be able to read The Red Chamber Dream, astronomy to know the wonders, the journeys, the history of the stars. To learn harmony and be able to compose music, to play the piano, learn to sing well, to ski, sail, to know more about the still nameless weeds, about animals, about … But even with a thousand years wouldn’t have I finished learning it, mastered the arts, sciences, languages. It’s like enjoying a mountain climb, despite the very tiring, trying efforts as new fascinating, captivating, enchanting sites, sceneries come into view, new paradises open. Even when we are convinced to have reached its summit then again another higher summit arises.
Yet am I still very grateful with the few things that I can reasonably do, am capable of, achieve, perform, enjoy in a limited lifetime. I so very much enjoy my “mountain-journeys” though I’ll never reach the tops. Well, isn’t it lucky that we happily never will reach these?
It’s like having a few choices out of thousands of the choicest, most delicious dishes. “Don’t spoil, don’t be greedy.” So I say to myself.
November 2007
“How vast are the potentials of a Computer. Imagine what it can do, perform. What I can handle, know and am capable of, is but a trifle compared to the abilities of a computer. To calculate, to write, delete, copy, paste, print, save, to communicate by internet, download, upload, connect to TV, Radio, play CD, VCD, and a lot more.” So I said to him who was repairing my computer.
“Certainly. Did you know that what we use and are capable of, of our brains is perhaps but a ten percent of its potentials? So someone said,” he added.
For days this thought was hovering over me. And I came to the conclusion, that it wasn’t our brains only but also our body was immensely vast, as a sea in potentials. And that of which we are capable of and use is almost nothing to what it can do, achieve.
Just imagine! Every language of perhaps more than a hundred thousand languages in the world could be learned by any one, but what we master are but some three, four, … ten languages. Every science of so many sciences could be learned, every music instrument, every sport, every art, every …, but what we’re capable of are just a few of them.
Mozart would just be an ordinary man were he born in an age without the music we now know. Van Gogh, Einstein just a farmer or a hunter were there no art of painting, no science. Their extraordinary potentials are unknown, hidden. They couldn’t have developed their talents.
It’s our brains that created the computer, the design of cities, space stations and all the things created around us.
What feet are capable of we only know when seeing invalids cook, shower, write, paint, handle a computer, drive a motor car, nurse a baby, raise kids, play on the guitar with their feet.
And I wondered whether there was one who ever was stupid, dull, dense but then turned out to be a renowned violinist, stage manager, cinematographer, … as a larva, pupae who came out a butterfly. Perhaps they’re ignorant about their potentialities or have no opportunity to exploit them to the full. The human potentials are so vast, almost unlimited, infinite except limited by one’s lifetime as is a tree that we cut off its branch always will sprout many new young shoots as though awakening after their slumbering, dormant potentials. When there was no bike invented, who could know that every one has the potential as cyclist. In the age of 10.000 A.D when we might be living in space-cities and space-travel to other planets and the moon, …how could we know what our new awakening potentials will be, what we’re capable of in that age.
Just think of it, there’s still such a lot that I would like to learn, to know: the bahasa Sunda (Sunda language) to be able to enjoy a Wayang Golek (puppet) performance, Chinese to be able to read The Red Chamber Dream, astronomy to know the wonders, the journeys, the history of the stars. To learn harmony and be able to compose music, to play the piano, learn to sing well, to ski, sail, to know more about the still nameless weeds, about animals, about … But even with a thousand years wouldn’t have I finished learning it, mastered the arts, sciences, languages. It’s like enjoying a mountain climb, despite the very tiring, trying efforts as new fascinating, captivating, enchanting sites, sceneries come into view, new paradises open. Even when we are convinced to have reached its summit then again another higher summit arises.
Yet am I still very grateful with the few things that I can reasonably do, am capable of, achieve, perform, enjoy in a limited lifetime. I so very much enjoy my “mountain-journeys” though I’ll never reach the tops. Well, isn’t it lucky that we happily never will reach these?
It’s like having a few choices out of thousands of the choicest, most delicious dishes. “Don’t spoil, don’t be greedy.” So I say to myself.
November 2007
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