TALENT

Use of your own talents creates a better understanding of the persons who surround you. In knowing yourself, and recognizing your own talents, you learn to recognize and accept your neighbor's.

Talent can be described as a natural ability in a particular area that may or may not require study. Its sharing and the perspective that comes from the responses of others, is what we use as a measuring stick to judge whether we are successful. These responses become part of one's experience and can be used as one's talent is practiced, applied and most importantly tested.

Talent sets standards and opens the mind to new possibilities by demonstrating that there are no boundaries to the attainable, which is determined only by human imagination. In the final analysis, it is important that we provide examples for those who do not believe they have a talent, natural ability, or for those people who have to work doubly hard to perform well. Remember a talent shared is an inspiration.

Today we pay homage to talent in many ways, we give Nobels, Oscars, Tonys, Grammys, Pulitzers. This endless process, however, has had the effect of clouding the public's view of talent and achievement and the reasons for sharing both on many levels. The reward of talent lies in the using and sharing of the gift. Each individual with a talent has the responsibility to share on whatever level they can make a difference. The world would be a sadder and more ignorant place if the great scientific and artistic minds had not shared the products of their talents.

What are these individual talents that have value and can make a difference in the lives of others? One is the gift of understanding, the ability to listen and perceive; another is the gift for insight, the ability to discard the insignificant and recognize the essential; yet another is the gift of intuition, the ability to discover an answer among apparently unrelated questions. Whether these talents are, they are defined as the ability to sympathize or to organize, they are as vital to human relationships as the talents of the scientist or artist. On both levels, the universal and personal, talent is creative and must be shared in order to have meaning as well as value.

I believe each individual with a talent has the responsibility to share that talent on whatever level it can make a difference. In our personal lives, worth can be measured only by answering two questions:

1. Did we develop our talent to the utmost?
2. Was our talent shared with others?