Everyday Canvas

Potential // Lyrics Copyright // Terrifying Secret

Prompt: What do you think people mean when they talk about a person’s potential and can human potential be measured?

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That ephemeral potential is, in fact, a possibility and not a guarantee, and I don’t think human potential can be measured. Just who can measure a possibility?

What annoys me is when people talk about potential as if it is a clear-cut promise of future. I heard it mentioned so much by my kids’ teachers: “He is doing very well, but he has so much more potential.” I always wondered just what the kid-improvement trade wanted from little kids who are only being little kids.

In this sense, the possibility (or potential) becomes an expectation, and therefore, a burden. My question is why do they want our kids to become stressed-out, miserable, self-conscious, and scarred for life?

Observe any child who isn’t pushed unnecessarily and you’ll see that they engage in learning and achieving more on their own, without falling prey to narcissism or the hatred of the adults’ antagonism.

On the other hand, to encourage children and older people alike by stating how good and important the work they are doing will give much better results. This happens in work situations, too. “We hired you because we felt you had potential.” Duh! Who hires anyone who has no possibility to do the job?

When people at any age know who they really are and honor themselves by never compromising their personal values or work ethics, they are already trying to be their best selves, which means they are already realizing their potential. So, using the presumed capacity of potential as a dowsing stick doesn’t produce results, and it is a wrong and unjust attitude to take toward any human being.

Copyrights of Song Lyrics

Did you know quoting song lyrics or lines from lyrics in your books and published work can get you in hot water where the copyright laws are concerned? The songs written before 1929 are all right to use, but not the ones after them.
I might have done just that mistake with one of my NaNo books, not to mention with what I write inside my blog. Luckily, neither has been commercially published.

http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/10/lyrics-in-books/?utm_campaign=BB1702B&utm_sourc...

The question that comes to my mind is this: What about those of us who hum or sing those songs in public places such as while walking on the street? Then what about the sites on the net that have the prints of the lyrics for public view?

Does this copyright law make sense at all? I don't think so.

Prompt: You have a terrifying secret that you never wanted anyone to know but the note taped on your car windshield suggests that someone does know. What are you willing to do to secure silence?

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Assuming that I really have a terrifying secret, I’d probably not do anything before I know the answers to a few questions. Come to think of it, even if I knew all the answers to all questions, I still wouldn’t do anything about it, except maybe coming clean in public, on my own:

Questions to consider:

1. Why would anyone tape a note on my car instead of talking to me or writing to me because any note taped on a car means the person who found out about the secret is not keeping it a secret since she or he has taped it in a place that is exposed to the public. From that point of view, there is nothing I can do about it.

2. Is this a blackmailing attempt? If the person who taped the note has the idea of a blackmail, he or she has got something coming to him/her. I do not succumb to blackmail no matter how terrible is my secret. Even if my secret’s being found out would result in my death, so be it.

3. How did that person found out about the secret? This would be something to make me curious. If that person found out about it, it may mean other people also know about it, which means my secret is not a secret anymore.

4. If he or she came across the secret by accident, what brought about that accident? I doubt that if I had a terrifying secret, I would leave any clues lying around. It may just be that the person is speculating or presuming that such a secret exists without any proof. I still wouldn’t do anything.