Sunday October 2, 2022; 10:25 PM EDT
- Over the years I've noticed people from different walks of life question whether their diligent efforts, their creativity, their careers, have accomplished what they'd hoped for, and concluding often enough that the answer is no. In some of those conversations I've found that people recount their accomplishments too narrowly, and at other times too impatiently, and sometimes with too much of an emphasis on only the more tangible results. I've sometimes resisted the conclusions friends and co-workers have drawn because I know that they've accomplished less tangible things that they aren't placing in their tallies. And some of the intangibles ripple away all the more intangibly, all the more unaccountably. Teachers sometimes get a hint of such things--you meet a former student, maybe someone you can hardly remember, if your memory is like mine, and the person mentions something that really made a difference and thanks you. Upon reflection, you can see that other people have made a difference in your own life but you've never expressed at all or maybe not nearly adequately what that difference has been. You've never told them. From which I conclude that we have no idea what we've managed to make possible for others. You do what you can, but you never can tell.#