Thomas Edison, that patent-sprinter of an inventor, once said, “If we all did the things we are really capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”
Boy. Isn’t that the truth? I guess this could go in a million different ways, depending on the person and what they are capable of. You see, we are all quite capable of wildly different things.
Like, I can’t roll my tongue in that curled-up position. Some claim it is a genetic thing, and others say it is environmental. Either way, I can’t do it.
I also don’t think I am capable of murdering someone, but there sure are a lot of other people who are quite good at this. As Edison said, “Astounding.”
History has a way of showing what people are capable of, and in some cases, what they aren’t. A few tidbits from across the timeline.
1633. The Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for a trial against him. This was for the inquisition surrounding his proclamation that the earth revolves around the Sun. He believed it and could prove it. Yet, under the weight of a death sentence, Galileo agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. So, he was put under house arrest indefinitely by Pope Urban VIII. The guy with the pointy hat. Galileo spent the rest of his days at his villa near Florence. He died there, nine years later, on January 8, 1642.
1866. Now here’s what a guy can do. Jesse James held up his first bank on this date. He stole $15,000 from the Clay County Savings Association in Liberty, Missouri. The Show-Me State. He showed them, I guess. He would also go on to commit about 19 more robberies and kill 20 people in the next dozen years as an active criminal. Until a guy named Robert Ford killed him.
1935. Here’s something a guy claimed he couldn’t do. In this year, Bruno Hauptmann was found guilty of kidnapping & murdering the infant of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Bruno Hauptmann proclaimed his innocence to the very end. He died in the electric chair in the New Jersey state prison on April 3, 1936. Today, there is much doubt around his guilty verdict.
1945. And this. Allied planes began bombing Dresden, Germany, during WWII. It was a terrible feat that lasted three days. The firestorm killed between 22,000 and 25,000 civilians and utterly destroyed the city. I asked my Dad about this after reading a Kurt Vonnegut novel. I knew as soon as I posed this question to him, I shouldn’t have.
1971. A different kind of bombing. While golfing on this February date, U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew hit two tee shots into the crowd while golfing. He injured two people. I guess that is slightly better than Dick Cheney shooting someone in the face.
1992. Gifted baseball player Jose Canseco was known for ramming baseballs out of the park with his bat. On this date, Canseco repeatedly rammed his Porsche into wife Esther’s BMW. Temper. Temper.
Oh, yes, Mr. Edison. We are surprised by the things we are capable of.
But let us not forget, it goes the other way too.
1861. Abraham Lincoln declared U.S. President in Washington, D.C. He would certainly go on to astound us in ways we couldn’t have imagined. Yet, sadly, many people wanted to stop him from doing those good things, and they did.
I have to say, as I sit here with all of this, I am eternally grateful for my mundane, simple life, with its small-reaching circles.
Humans are capable of doing all sorts of things, from walking in the glorious light, to dwelling in the deepest of darkness.
But in any moment, we can give the world the slightest smile, or a kindly thought — even a prayer for peace. It may not be astounding. Or will it?
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“A thought, even a possibility, can shatter and transform us.”
― Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
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“Who you are tomorrow begins with what you do today.”
― Tim Fargo
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“Do not think it impossible just because it has never happened.”
― Stephen R. Lawhead
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It may astound you. Or the entire, capable world.
