<em>"The decisions you make now, bud, can't be changed but with years and years of hard work to redo it... And in those years you become something different. Everybody does as the time passes. You get married, you get into debt... But you're never gonna be the same person you are right now. And promise and potential... It's very fickle, and it just might not be there anymore."
<strong>-- LIONS FOR LAMBS</strong></em>

[caption id="attachment_1558" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Potential doesn&#39;t last forever."]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/lionsa.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1558" title="Lions For Lambs" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/lionsa-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" /></a>[/caption]

The speech is in one of the final scenes of "Lions for Lambs," where a USC professor played by Robert Redford tries to convince a promising student to actually do something meaningful with his life.

It may be difficult for some people to understand, but just as opportunities come and go, so does potential. The brain is a muscle like any other; exercise it and retain your potential or let things slide and slip slide away from brilliance just to brightness.

<em>Editor's note: The brain is not a muscle.</em>

No, but the analogy works. I'd be willing to bet that my IQ is 30-40 points lower than it was when I was 20. Reading fiction, playing computer games and surfing the Internet will do that to you.

I made decisions, and I became something different -- someone different -- from what I was.

[caption id="attachment_1559" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Tough to keep your seat."]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/49027812.BullRiding2.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1559" title="49027812.BullRiding2" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/49027812.BullRiding2-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

Promise and potential <em>are</em> very fickle, just as Redford's professor said. In a way, taking advantage of your gifts is like riding a bull in a rodeo. All you can do is hang on, keep trying and hope to make it through the ride. Each time you get thrown, it gets harder to get back on and do it again.

I'm not sure I ever bothered to get onto the bull more than once or twice in my life, and when things didn't go well -- when I got thrown -- I didn't get back on for a long time.

I was always great at giving advice to my kids. I told my son that 90 percent of life was just showing up. He listened and he's doing very well.

When I was 20, I might have accomplished something really important.

I didn't.

But at 62, I can still be the best husband possible, the best father and the best grandfather. I can let the people I love know that I love them, and do what I can to make their lives happier.

I can stop wasting my time on things like anger and disappointment, and I can finish my book.

I think I might have at least a little bit of potential left.

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