flood

We mourn wasted potential, but this is usually a proxy for something more deserving of our mourning, such as useless inequity. 

Wasted potential, in itself, is no more to be mourned than the universal fact of mortality. Imagine a world in which potential was not wasted. Impossible!  Or if possible, stupefying in its badness.  From this we may rightly pray for relief, as from too much rain.