The death of anyone represents unrealized potential, the loss of what could have been with another minute, year or decade of life.

With the passing of Steve Jobs, the world paused to remember a man who changed a lot about the way we create, share and experience the world ours has become.  He led a company that revolutionized whole lines of products that now seem essential in our lives.  Now the question will always be, “What else would he have done?”

His lost legacy is not unique.  You can ask that question about anyone.  A loss of life is the loss of inventions, books, works of art, ideas and experiences.  With each one, the world — in ways however grand or minute — will never be the same.

A few years ago I read a book that remains one of my favorites.  It was recommended to me by a friend, written by an author I had never heard of.  The story is one I connected with from the first page, with an unforgettably unique protagonist — the kind of experience that left me wanting to read everything he had ever written.  Sadly, there wasn’t much else. 

The book was “A Confederacy of Dunces,” which earned author John Kennedy Toole the Pulitzer Prize in fiction.  But under the weight of depression he killed himself, and it was only after his death that “Dunces” and another book he wrote at age 16 were published.  It’s a shame the untold stories in his head were lost before they were told.

So to the creators, the storytellers, the visionaries and anyone with ideas kept private because they seemed silly or unimportant — please share them.  The world wants to know.