It's a quarter `til midnight on Thursday evening and I got my fourth or fifth second wind of the day a few minutes ago.

Not a good time of the day to get a second wind. But here I am at the keyboard attempting to make the most of it.

I'm sure you've occasionally found yourself wondering what makes folks tick. Ever wondered why you do what you do, when you do it, the way you do it?

Not too frequently, huh? I don't like to go there either. Not often anyway.

For instance, some folks seem driven while others appear to be called. Some are gifted while others have to study and train hard to learn what they learn and be able to do what they do. Surely you've watched how some folks fly through life while others flutter, and still others just hover. Then there are those who skip merrily along while others trudge wearily to make every step.

I enjoy meeting people (every now and then - I couldn't stand too many at one time) who are always organized and who can so easily finish one project before going on to another. I have no such blood in my veins. I like having three, four or five things going on at one time. In fact, I seldom just watch television. I want to read the paper or a magazine, or draw, or write, or fiddle, or something, while I'm in front of the tube.

I've scratched out a couple of half way decent poems at red lights. Don't panic, I do resist the urge to take a pen in hand while driving a moving vehicle. But I'm constantly switching radio stations. I flip back and forth all the time among WSB, WPCH, GPR/NPR, JOY, and WKHX. Commercials are wasted on me.

When I manage to get control of the TV remote I do the same thing. I drive Daniel up a wall with the constant flitting. I drive myself bananas if I just sit, or try to do one thing at a time. You guessed it. He's by far the more organized one of us. At least it appears that way.

But his kind have their problems too. I mean, he cannot find anything in the fridge. And never say to him, “It's on the top shelf of the closet” or “in the second drawer of the chest...” He will want to know what part of the shelf the item occupies and exactly where in the drawer it lies. Really. I bet you know somebody like that, too.

Now, I ask you, who's more dysfunctional? Him or me? Or, could it be that we all have our own niches to fill and voids to cope with, our own special abilities to use and enjoy and our own disabilities with which to contend.

Aha... I just realized where all this may be coming from. Usually there is some little something that happens to trigger this kind of self-searching.

In this case, it was a young man I encountered at OfficeMax earlier this week. I eavesdrop quite often. Any opportunity I get, in fact. Rude? I don't think so. Not for me. It's just an insatiable curiosity about people. Anyway, the young man had been working on a project when he stopped to offer to help a customer (yep, it still happens!).

Then he paused at the new copy-and-print center in the back of the store to ask a young woman about something else which led to a brief conversation which ended with her telling him how important it is to finish one thing before you let yourself get pulled away to something else. (She and Daniel would get along well).

And I stood there, receiving great service myself, by the way — I love that new addition at the Fayetteville store — see what I mean, even now I can't stay focused the way a normal person defines focused. Anyway, I stood there thinking to myself that he can't help it. He's who he is and he'll do okay. I wanted to tell him so, but why spoil the fun? Let him have his own moments of wondering what makes him tick.

John Newton said it well:

I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world, but, still, I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.

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