I know how I was raised. I was inculcated with the norms of my biased and prejudiced elders as well as their compassion and curiosity. I was a hodgepodge of contradictions and as a logical type person, that bothered me. So early in my life I had to face those contradictions and decide for myself who I was and what I would represent. I found that racism was hatred and was able to accept that we are all human beings. That wasn't so hard especially when I made friends with many who were not white like me. If found that poverty doesn't make one a substandard person as well as that wealth doesn't make one an exceptional one. That the disparity between poverty and wealth is most often a manipulation beyond our own control.
So then I started looking at the bigger picture. Granted I got lost for a time in my own wallowing pity, but I did recover and since then have been stalwart for events and circumstances beyond my own selfishness. Again the bigger picture became much clearer, like the chapter, The Allegory of the Cave, in Plato's Republic, I got to see beyond my own imagining. A more enlightened, comprehensive, panoramic view of life and what it could be. I look upon life now as one who would make every life better. One who sees not just days ahead but centuries. Not as a master of the universe who has arrived but as a simple human being who stands ready to defend all that is good and amazing about our species.
I know who I am and I am always just the beginning of a better me. I am humbled to have this insight into my own nature and privileged to share it with the universe. The worst of who we are as a species is the result of arrogance, intolerance and selfishness. I wont be like that and will fight against it all of my days. No more will I be part of the problem but instead part of the best we can ever hope to achieve. I have confronted myself and worked to strip myself of the past bad thoughts and behaviors I was naively taught during my youth. I am a man now and as such I fight my own fights and be who I hope is the best of who I ever could be.
So then I started looking at the bigger picture. Granted I got lost for a time in my own wallowing pity, but I did recover and since then have been stalwart for events and circumstances beyond my own selfishness. Again the bigger picture became much clearer, like the chapter, The Allegory of the Cave, in Plato's Republic, I got to see beyond my own imagining. A more enlightened, comprehensive, panoramic view of life and what it could be. I look upon life now as one who would make every life better. One who sees not just days ahead but centuries. Not as a master of the universe who has arrived but as a simple human being who stands ready to defend all that is good and amazing about our species.
I know who I am and I am always just the beginning of a better me. I am humbled to have this insight into my own nature and privileged to share it with the universe. The worst of who we are as a species is the result of arrogance, intolerance and selfishness. I wont be like that and will fight against it all of my days. No more will I be part of the problem but instead part of the best we can ever hope to achieve. I have confronted myself and worked to strip myself of the past bad thoughts and behaviors I was naively taught during my youth. I am a man now and as such I fight my own fights and be who I hope is the best of who I ever could be.
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