Potential

I saw a Twitter post recently, listing the things women get hooked on that lead them to hang on to unsuccessful relationships, and one really struck me. Potential. We see potential in a guy, and we cling to the dream of what he could be. What he could accomplish. If he has enough time, if he has enough money, if he has enough support... If, if, if.

And, quite frankly, I don't know what to do with that. I see potential in everyone. It's one of my probably misguided, but unshakable core beliefs. Everyone has something to contribute to the world in a way only they can do it.

So when you believe such a fanciful thing, how do you stop yourself from seeing the potential in everyone? And if clinging to that hint of potential is what brings relationships to their downfall, how do you avoid that? I will never be with a partner I do not believe is capable of great things. I also think most everyone is capable of great things. And thus, I am in a conundrum.  How do I weed out the guys who will end up complacent and unsatisfied in all things, when I can see that they are capable of more?

I don't have an answer. Because Einstein, in all his brilliance, had a wife who suffered through his inability to hold down a job. Who raised the children and helped with his theories. Who sacrificed herself on the throne of history so that her husband may one day be deemed a good man. Though I doubt that was less her motive than a socially instilled duty to stand by her husband at all costs. And where has that led her? Into the oblivion.

But some men become truly great, and perhaps it is sometimes because they have truly great women behind, or even better, beside them. But how the heck do you know who is destined for greatness, and who will end up destitute in a stranger's basement until their next "big idea" takes off?

History is littered with women who "stand by [their] man". Some end up reflecting the brilliance of stars, and some die an ignoble death in the infidelity of public opinion. And, on occasion, some are seen bathing in the imaculacy (I've now made that a word) of their own light. Without another to validate or magnify or in any way alter their greatness.

Anyways, I'm going to bed for now. This has been yet another stream of consciousness by yours truly, destined to forever be lost in the void.