One person's reflections on why things are the way they are, why people are the way they are, and why you should care. Read this blog if you enjoy chewing on demanding, transpontine mental morsels.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Two Factors
In a non-crisis environment, free of pandemic, famine, and war, who you are is dictated by two, and only two factors:
The decisions you have made in the past, and
The decisions you are making right now.
2 comments:
Anonymous
said...
How would you define "who you are"? Would you agree that part of that is confidence? Self-image first begins developing in late childhood and early adolescence. Your peer relationships at that time are primarily determined by attractiveness. While you can develop peer relationships by compensating in other ways (which is often great for developing strength, resilience, etc.), the fact is, "who you are" is influenced not only by the decisions you make, but by how people around you respond to you. As humans, we are inherently biased - and that will affect the way people around you respond to the decisions you make. And, of course, you can make the best of those reactions. But, as they say, no man is an island. Part of being human is being affected by others.
I think "who you are" is certainly the confluence of all the factors you mentioned. I think that, outside of an emergency situation, you have the ability to decide just how you respond to outside influence. Surely, some negative influences are much more difficult to resist than others, but doing so is not so uncommon. History is littered with examples of people overcoming impossible odds to achieve something wonderful. What they have in common is that at some point in their struggle they made a decision to get out of it.
2 comments:
How would you define "who you are"? Would you agree that part of that is confidence? Self-image first begins developing in late childhood and early adolescence. Your peer relationships at that time are primarily determined by attractiveness. While you can develop peer relationships by compensating in other ways (which is often great for developing strength, resilience, etc.), the fact is, "who you are" is influenced not only by the decisions you make, but by how people around you respond to you. As humans, we are inherently biased - and that will affect the way people around you respond to the decisions you make. And, of course, you can make the best of those reactions. But, as they say, no man is an island. Part of being human is being affected by others.
I think "who you are" is certainly the confluence of all the factors you mentioned. I think that, outside of an emergency situation, you have the ability to decide just how you respond to outside influence. Surely, some negative influences are much more difficult to resist than others, but doing so is not so uncommon. History is littered with examples of people overcoming impossible odds to achieve something wonderful. What they have in common is that at some point in their struggle they made a decision to get out of it.
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