I Met a Man
On hidden talent, the beauty most people miss, and how easily the most important things in our lives go unrecognized.
There are people walking around with extraordinary gifts they’ll never name. Painters who don’t paint. Writers who don’t write. The quietly astonishing person at the next desk over whose mind nobody’s ever really seen.
This is for them. And for the version of you that hasn’t yet recognized what’s already there.
I met a man unaware of his talent
A God given ability —
The world had never seen
And never would; his humility
Was wrapped in stubbornness
And perhaps the ignorance
That people should see
His creations; an indifference
To something profound
And that’s when I knew
We’ll never see all the beauty
This life has to offer; it’s true
That this could be me
And it could be you
Never knowing what’s special
In all the things we do
The unsettling part isn’t that the world misses some of its best work. The unsettling part is how easily it could be mine, or yours — gifts that stay nameless because we’ve gotten too comfortable with the parts of ourselves we already know.
Look harder. There’s probably more in there than you think.
— JTC