12

I once heard a story of a man who was taken by his friend to see a famous piano player in a concert. After the concert, the man found out that the piano player had six fingers on each of his hands. "How can he play piano with twelve fingers?" The man asked his friend. "The extra fingers would get in the way." His friend simply responded by saying "That last song can only be played with 12 fingers."

This 12 fingered man could have seen his extra fingers in the way that the man who watched his concert did, as only an extra burden and a problem to make his life more difficult. He could of sulked his life away wondering why he had to have this terrible punishment. Instead, this Piano player saw his extra fingers in a way that others could not; he realized that he could use them to make something incredible that nobody else could, and in doing so was able to figure out that this was not a curse, but a gift.

I believe that everybody has something unique and special, and all they need to do is realize the potential of their gift and they can take it far and create something of incredible value. Something may seem at first to be a punishment or burden to carry, but turn out to be able to bless not only the life of the carrier, but a blessing to the lives of those around him as well. It is a terribly sad thing when a person has a unique gift and they can only see it as a problem because they aren't trying to look for the bigger picture or see what could come of it, so it goes to waste.

I encourage each person to take their extra fingers and make unique and magical music for the world to hear. There's not much greater than that.