powerlessness

So, I have been contmeplating powerlessness as of late and its root, and the ability to overcome it. I have met a few interesting perspectives. I sit here today and I ponder the varying thoughts. I ran into an old classmate and have caught up on his life and I must say I sit in something of awe as I think on his story. He has been down some hard roads, he has hit rock bottom and yet despite his own struggle with powerlessness, he has managed to find the inner strength to crawl out. Somehow, somewhere he found his own power deep within to fight his demons and come out on top and it begs the question....how is it that some of us can manage to do so and can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and others cannot?

I sit and I compare his ability and my own, and I have trouble understanding how he managed to do so and I cannot do the same? Is it a matter of when we lost our personal power? I lost mine as a wee child. Does that then make it harder to unlearn? Does it make it harder to regain personal power if it is lost at such a tender age? is it a matter of persoanlity? I do wonder though why it becomes so hard for me and yet appears so easy for others. Maybe thats the answer....maybe its appearances.....maybe what appears to be going on isn't....maybe I'm not seeing as clearly as I thought....maybe I am not fully appreciating the struggle of another.

So many questions, and yet no answers....