Dealing with limitations positively is the basis for satisfactory living.

One of our main frustrations in life is dealing with limitations. There are limitations imposed on us by others or that we ourselves impose(the visa system, for instance), economical limitations and personal limitations(blindness, deafness, etc.), to name only a few types. Just think, could you really have become a medical doctor, an engineer, a scientist or an artist even if you had wanted to or had been willing to work extremely hard to achieve this? How do we determine beforehand what is exactly within our reach and what isn't? Or can we? "If you think you can or if you think you can't, you're right," is a statement attributed to Henry Ford, the car manufacturer. It is, to me, a beautiful statement. Maybe beautiful in its accuracy. Of course, with children we have to be careful. We have to be less realistic with them than we are normally with ourselves. First, because they need so much encouragement and need to "aim" high at the outset. Second, because it is basically sheer arrogance to pretend to be able to predict what a child can or cannot manage to do in her/his adulthood. But we know from experience that limitations do exist and that some of these will begin descending upon every human being at various stages in her/his life. It is glorious and enriching to read of people who, in spite of their "limitations," managed to "overcome" them(always with the help of others, of course) and to accomplish much in life just as it is inglorious to read of one who started out with much yet never benefitted or made any use of having been so blessed. Of the former case, some of the calibre of Abraham Lincoln or Helen Keller come to mind; of the latter, perhaps a Robert Vesco or the "preppie murderer." There can be no human life without limitations. They are many and varied, but they are certain and inextinguishable. We hear over and over and over again talk of equality. This is okay. We need to talk of equality. We need laws regarding it. But we know that we really mean equality of conditions and opportunities, and even then, we often fall terribly short. If God gave us breath, then it is He who is the author of our physical, mental and even spiritual inequalities. These are part of the Divine Plan. Like death. Sometimes we see the logic there. Can you envision Adolph Hitler, now 113 years old, still strutting and seeking to devise every evil under the sun imaginable? Thanks for reading me.