Human beings as a whole are made up of all different shapes and sizes…while some may stretch to a height of seven feet, others come in around five and a half feet, or shorter. No mystery here…it’s just the way God made us….each one of us different and unique….human development and nature, which grows at it’s own pace. Plain and simple, we should not be surprised that physical, emotional and intellectual growth differs from individual to individual….only mankind, in it’s wisdom, starts to assign rules, regulations and levels to achievement.

For each person who prospers and accomplishes early in life, there is also a corresponding number who are called, “Late Bloomers.” In a society with a short attention span seeking instant gratification, is it any wonder that there is little patience for these Late Bloomers? It can also be said, right smack in the middle of Early Achievers and Late Bloomers, is a whole hodge podge of our society….trying to find out how their successes can be measured. One question stands out…can we really put an age on talent, achievement, and acceptability?

One night I was watching The Larry King Show on CNN, and I listened with amazement to the writings of a little boy with muscular dystrophy…reciting his poetry with the wisdom that could easily been created by an eighty year old….a child with no degrees after his name, with a universal knowledge that was so unique and simple that anyone from any walk of life would be able to comprehend. It also brought to mind something I experienced a few years ago, at the nightclub Michael’s Pub in New York City, where the singer Mel Torme was appearing, before his passing. Mel mentioned, as he looked around the room, something to the effect of, that at this late stage in his career, in his late sixties, that he saw young people over here, not so young people over there, and here he was playing a two week engagement that was sold out. He added that when he was half that age, he wouldn’t have been able to sell out the place for one night! Then he thanked everyone. The point being, for anybody or any society to have the audacity to put any limits or restrictions on abilities like these, according to age, is wrong.

Life is not a race…it doesn’t matter who gets there first. It’s just that we get there.

Keep on truckin’ 🙂
love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2003 Jennifer Avalon