The one constant of life we can always count upon

As an avid consumer of biographies, I'm continuously amazed how an identical environment produces such divergent lives. Take Leonardo da Vinci, among the most gifted of our species. He was entirely self-taught. The illegitimate son of a Florentine notary was barred from all formal education. Who recalls his "educated" half brothers?

Consider also, how at the age of seven Samuel Colt and two siblings were sent to a foster home after their mother died. Colt's sister ended up committing suicide and his brother was later convicted of a gruesome hatchet murder. Yet Samuel became an American legend, rich and famous and forever remembered for inventing the revolving pistol – earning the famous epitaph: "God made all men. Sam Colt made them equal."

In a local context, there's Bram Fischer. Born into one of Afrikanerdom's most distinguished families, this brilliant lawyer with the world at his feet turned left when almost everyone else was moving right. That set him on a life path that his famous Treason Trial client Nelson Mandela observed "…showed a level of courage and sacrifice that was in a class by itself. I fought only against injustice, not against my own people."

Examples like these serve as a constant reminder that fellow homo sapiens are complex far beyond our ken. So best to keep an open mind, an observant eye and remember the beginning of wisdom starts with the realisation of how little we actually know. Because one constant of life you can always count upon, is that it will keep surprising us.