The Best People

For any given event in this world, there are people who made it happen, people who watched it happen and people who wonder what happened (among others - like most reductions, I think that this one leaves out a lot of people). Anyone who tells themselves that they are always in the first group is flattering themselves. No single human being is so important that nothing of substance can be made to happen without them. Therefore, no matter how proactive we may be, we will never escape being observers of the things done by others, or being left to wonder about the things that we could not observe, but the consequences of which impact us.

Throughout our lives, we move between the three groups - and more besides. There are people doing significant things who did not see fit to involve me, and would rightfully resent my efforts to include myself in their activities. Ms. Ash may have seen herself as a lesser person for allowing others to do as they please without her involvement, but I am okay with it. And that is what stands out to me about this quote - the idea that only the people who make things happen are "doing it right." But down that path lies, if not madness, being an eternal busybody who refuses to allow life to go on as it will.