The difference between me and people smarter than me

I wrote a 760 word post three days ago. Jen (smarter than me) provided me with a quote from Clifford Geertz (infinitely smarter than me) that explained nearly the entirety of my disjointed, uncertain thoughts in a twitter-friendly 35 words.

"One of the most significant facts about us may finally be that we all begin with the natural equipment to live a thousand kinds of life but end in the end having lived only one." --C. Geertz