My Virtual Reading Room

No one of us escapes limitations...Some people are gifted with their hands, some people are gifted in the realm of art or music, some people are gifted in the realm of abstract ideas.  Almost no one is gifted in all three realms.  We are all limited, and we must accept ourselves with our limitations, recognizing that we can do what others cannot do, that we can contribute where others cannot contribute.

To accept ourselves with our limitations means also that we will recognize how variable and flexible our lives can be.  The great thing about life is that as long as we live we have the privilege of growing.  We can learn new skills, engage in new kinds of work, devote ourselves to new causes, make new friends, if only we will exercise a little initiative and refuse to become fixed, rigid....

Let us, then, learn how to accept ourselves--accept the truth that we are capable in some directions and limited in others, that genius is rare, that mediocrity is the portion of almost all of us, but that all of us can contribute from the storehouse of our skills to the enrichment of our common life.  Let us accept our emotional frailties, knowing that every person has some phobia lurking within his mind and that the normal person is he who is willing to accept life with its limitations and its opportunities joyfully and courageously.

(Joshua Loth Liebman)