I don't often sit at home and just wonder how ordinary it all is. The cereal eating, the job, the toilet duties, the toothbrushing. I did just get a new Braun Toothbrush, electric model, the DLX toothbrush - and it seems like it is extra-ordinary, but since I'm the last guy on earth to get one, I'm now simply back to being ordinary guy when I brush my teeth. I probably was more of a stand out with my manual brush. I had one of those Preserve models. Curved. Ivory colored. Softy. It was nice, did the job. Still does. Trusty. I can't wait to use it again when the power's off. Of course this new Braun is good for 45 hours of continuous brushing. That seems like a lot of days with the power off. National disaster even wouldn't cause me to turn to Ole Trusty.
I sit here and wonder how ordinary it all is. How ordinary am I? I'm not rock star famous. Not exemplary at anything of note. Perhaps I have a talent for brushing my teeth, but the cavities I've had would probably negate any claim I have to that talent. Latent talent. That's what I probably have. Many ordinary folks have it too. I always thought, as I rode my bike, that somewhere somehow there is a kid (probably a girl!) who is faster than Lance. Naturally gifted. Who is never going to realize their talent. Latent talent.
Latent talent. You have to trust that it exists in everyone. Just assume everybody has some skill or facet that they might not ever exhibit that just would about scare the bejesus out of you if they pulled it out. Like screaming really loud. Or singing the alphabet song backwards in the key of e. Or blogging like there's no tomorrow, about the most ordinary things. That's not my hidden talent. That's probably not even a latent talent of anyone in the world.
Here's a descartes quotation. I had to read it a couple of times. I'm slow with philosophy, and I forget what I learned and already know. It's perhaps a latent talent. "Of all things, good sense is the most fairly distributed: everyone thinks he is so well supplied with it that even those who are the hardest to satisfy in every other respect never desire more of it than they already have."
René Descartes, Discourse on Method, 1637
