Never Judge a Book by it's Cover

Everyone, everywhere has something... mathematical genius, visual or literary creativity or even heightened levels of awareness. Whether or not these abilities are discovered and nurtured to fruition delicately rests upon multiple, fluctuating variables. Unfortunately, timing is everything. What time period one enters life, which parents are charged with one's upbringing, financial support, level of exposure of said abilities, location and culture lived in, the list of variables is bound to be as long as the list of possible extraordinary talents.
I know most of you reading have a sense of something unique to you, inside, if you have not yet had the fortune to identify it. You know something is in there, you may even be coming close to pin pointing your personal talent. Maybe you are not the richest person in your circle, maybe your vocabulary isn't the most advanced, perhaps you have difficulty maintaining relationships, you didn't have the advantage of a quality education or you don't possess all of the social graces of royalty. Appearances rarely reflect the true depths of an individuals gifts. We all live and die with this uniqueness and this makes us equal in these terms. So, remember this the next time you are inclined to look down on another individual, because as the old adage states you should "be kind to the people you meet on the way up, because you may meet the same people on the way down".

Seraphine de Sanlis, was orphaned at the age age of seven. She worked as a shepherdess, a domestic worker and housekeeper. She was so poor that she collected items throughout her day that could be later made into paint and painted by candle light. She was thought by most to be "slow". She never had an art lesson, but painted the most perfect creations in the Naive art movement. Her paintings are displayed in several museums in France. Seraphine was admitted to the Clermont Lunatic's Asylum for chronic psychosis. She never painted again and died friendless and alone at the age of 78. What a shame.

Albert Einstein was born with a misshaped head and his parents thought him to be "retarded". He also had a speech problem, so that he really didn't start speaking well until about the age of nine. Even then he spoke very slow. In another time and place he may have been disregarded instead of educated and nurtured to be the genius that he was.

Henry Darger was a reclusive American writer and artist. He worked as a custodian in Chicago. He had no friends and spoke very little to anyone. Only upon his death did his landlords find his art and literature including a novel that would easily be the longest in the world had it been published. He had the appearance of a homeless man and his talents went undiscovered until his death, alone and friendless.

Charles Darwin was considered by family and friends to be "a very ordinary boy, rather below the common standard of intellect".

Thomas Edison's teachers said he was "too stupid to learn anything".

Sigmund Freud received a round of booos when he first publicly presented his findings.

Ah... judgment...what a wicked storm of regrets you conjure. Now, you can learn to slow down and smell the roses, but the true challenge lies in finding the hidden beauty over the obvious.