it’s astounding how quickly and completely things can spin out of control. in one moment, you’re standing at the top of the world and in the next you’re stranded on the street, screaming at the top of your lungs.

we humans have the capacity for incredible progress as well as massive destruction. we are constantly in control of our fates, juggling them in a way that continuously negotiates the fine border between morality and insanity. we are not only able to wreak havoc on our surroundings, we are literally handed the tools: education, technology, electricity, weapons, chemicals, our own hands. we place incredible faith in each other: we trust that all others will follow the rules, will stick to the plan. we trust each other to respect the limits, to take care of each other both through our actions and in the urges we actively repress.

every once in awhile, someone steps outside the boundaries, identifying themselves as a person capable of Doing Something, whether that thing is big or little, inspiring or devastating. the attack on the twin towers was, at it’s conception, someone’s eccentric harebrained fantasy. so was martin luther king jr’s assassination. so too was the invention of penicillin, the building of the great wall of china, the egyptian pyramids, the english language. gandhi was one of us, as was adolph hitler, as is barack obama, as will be my children, my children’s children.

we are limitless, intrinsically capable of great revelations and horrifying turmoil. it is our potential that ultimately unites us; it is the force that keeps us turning, spinning, pressing forward and continuing on.