Greatness

Chain haiku variation: 3-5-3s rather than 5-7-5s.

Everyone
can have a moment
of greatness

but not all
will achieve greatness
legacy

who gave more--
Einstein or Fleming?
Which was great?

great does not
equal famous or
rich or smart


I thought about dropping more names in this, trying to make it more of an actual comparison between relatively ignored people whose work has bettered large portions of the human race (such as Norman Barlaug, John Snow, Henry Bethune, Ignatz Semmelweis, Vesalius, et al.) and people whose contributions to the world have made them famous, even though those contributions might not have bettered mankind (Oppenheimer, Fermi) or whose only claim to greatness is a genetic fluke that allows them to be faster or better at a sport than others and whose achievements do little of value for humanity, unless it is to inspire us to find that at which we excel and pursue it wholeheartedly (Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt).  But in the end, I decided to leave it more open-ended; I think it's better without the names.  In fact, if I could devise a way to make the comparison without any names at all, but still be concise and understood, I think I might prefer that.