The following quote:

"If I am worth anything later, I am worth something now. For wheat is wheat, even if people think it is grass in the beginning"

is credited to Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh and is said to have been found in a letter he wrote to his brother Theo Van Gogh. And with all due respect it is quite trash.

Would you forgive my arrogance if I add that I'm a polemicist? If you won't, listen to my argument and see if I was able to trash the quote properly enough 😃.

Criticism Proper

If you are worth something later does that really mean you're worth something now? It's hard to say someone or something is worth nothing whatsoever apart from the fact that someone is worth something later doesn't mean they are worth anything now.

Because first of all who is to tell if someone would be worth something later? Is it ever certain? Almost nothing is ever certain. Even if the potential is there and all the resources required to reach the potential value the fact remains that bumps on the road could make the goal unachieved in the end.

Fire could burn the young wheat, pests and diseases could devour it, malnutrition could kill it off, thieves could make away with it. When this happens what becomes of all the adoration heaped on it when it hadn't yet become wheat? The adorer is left without having tasted any of the value just like it was grass all along.

So it is clear what I'm saying at this point, future value can be prevented from ever manifesting so it cannot fully and rightly be already valued according to it's future value until it attains that value.

Of course I'm not saying potential should be disregarded until it actualizes, or something of the sort, I'm just reminding this quote that obstacles win against potential a lot of times so valuation when potential hasn't matured into actual value is ill advised.

The End

Hi there, buy my novella Professor Otagburuagu. It promises to be thoroughly entertaining and intellectually stimulating. Written by myself and illustrated by Scandinavian artist @ katharsisdrill.

You can order the hard copy from anywhere in the world via this link:
https://katharsisdrill.art/the-katharsisdrill-shop/professor-otagburuagu/

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