Unproven potential...
But if the potential isn't ever proven, what good is it? Do you even know it's there? This sounds suspiciously like a question that's supposed to be deep, and maybe I'm just not delving into it enough....
Never mind. I'm going to delve.
I will explain my opinion on this topic by relating to you, dear friends, three examples.
There is a little girl around the block by my house. Her name, for the sake of this example, will be Annie. She lives in an upside down teepee. But that is beside the point. The real point is that, in her heart, she knows she is a wonderful scuba diver. She understands the meaning of her deep appreciation for the slow grace that is bestowed upon waterlogged objects. She can relate to the feelings of the fish who swim in the water- the contentment they find in the secure blanket of weight and silk that oceans provide them with. She thrives in anoxic areas. (Not really. That would be weird. And we want this example as legitimate as possible.)
Although Annie is sure of her destiny and sure of her potential of being said scuba diver, she is absolutely unable to become a scuba diver. You see, she lives in Calgary. There is no ocean in Calgary, and her parents keep her locked up in a tower doing math homework for the rest of her life. There is no escape.
So. In this situation, we can see that unproven potential is worth absolutely nothing. It will not help her in the long run, ever.
Actually, you know what, I'm bored of this question and it's time for bed. So let me sum up the other two examples. I can think of three alternate situations that relate to our inner selves not materialising to their maximum extent. There is the first example, in which it is physically impossible to prove potential; it is therefore worthless and probably will make you miserable in the long run because you know (somehow) that you were made to be a scuba diver or a concert digeridooist and now you can't because of things like overprotective, tower-building, physicist parents or overprotective, stick-breaking, physicist parents and maybe you'll even end up mangling yourself and/or others in return of life's futility.
The second alternative I can muster up in my current state of mind would be that you don't know about your 'potential.' Because really, if it's completely unproven, that should mean it isn't even proven to yourself. I mean, what if you've seen all the instructional videos on envelope making there is to see? What if you've watched Hallmark greeters for hours making envelopes? What if you know by heart the pattern of the folding, the cutting, the gluing...what if you are so bloody confident in your envelope making skills that you decide FINALLY you are ready to prove your potential to the world and yourself and you fail? Your hands are covered in paper cuts and you are doomed to handing out damaged cards for the rest of your life. Was the potential ever even there? What makes us think we have potential, if it's unproven, anyways? That's a little paradoxical, if you think about it...
The last alternative that my brain can see is that you have the potential (somehow you know this without proving it, although how anyone can know something without proving it is proving to be a complicated, nonsensical entity in my frontal lobe) to be, to do, to see, and yet willingly and consciously you do nothing about it. This too, would be categorized as 'unproven'. But if you know (or have proved...fack) that you have this potential, why wouldn't you want to share it? I don't know. This question has too many loopholes.
Finally, on the potential for a person being good or bad...
Rachel's right, I think. In a way. There is potential either way. We are all born a blank slate. So to speak. I'm not completely an existentialist, but I do think that if someone hides their 'evil' away all their life, they were never evil in the first place. If nobody thinks you're evil, if you never 'prove' your potential for evil, or good for that matter, you cannot be categorized as such.
...Fack.
And Katie, I don't want to answer your question.
I like people who don't ask questions like that. Because it requires no thinking. I like nice people who are funny and outgoing and sexy. I don't like boring, fat, ugly people. I am just as prejudiced as this whole entire world, and so are you.
