August 14, 2007
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who are we?
Nothing complicated here. Just some observations.
Some people seem like taut coiled springs filled with potential. Waiting. Waiting. And then the moment comes when they find the thing that they truly want, their deepest desire, the person they most want to become. And then they spring forth like an arrow from a bow flying forth unerringly toward their target. But what if they never find what it is that they seek and what happens to them when they reach their target?
Some people are more like a collection of lego pieces carefully arranged into a construct of their choosing. Each piece planned and placed to fit into a greater picture of the whole of their life. They don’t necessarily know what pieces they will be dealt but to the extent to which they can control the outcome they ever choose to place each in the place where it fits best, to make a life that has the best shape, or at least the shape that appeals most to them. But what if they build their perfect structure only to find it ultimately empty?
Some people are more like a still pool, calm, unflappable, with nowhere to flow and no need nor desire to be moved. And any change that hits their surface only causes ripples that soon fade into nothing. It is as if they will be constant, forever, always at peace with themselves and the world in which they persist. But even stillness is an illusion. What if a crack should appear in the earth upon which the pool sits and then the stillness becomes a whirlpool of chaos sucking in everything leaving nothing behind?
Some people are more like a canvas onto which reality paints itself. They become whatever their environments makes of them and they adapt with the circumstances. The picture that they are becomes increasing complex moment by moment, event by event as they change in accordance with their experiences. But even for them there is a shape that they want to be, like a stone that sculptures say has its ultimate form sleeping within, so to our these people waiting for the life to stick that best brings out their colors. But what if they never find it and they ever live a conglomeration of lives that they never wanted to be?
All of these are ways people can be. All of these carry risks and rewards. Are there others? Probably, but these are the ones I have observed at least the ones I can think of right now.
Though we have some influence on our characters, we don’t really choose our natures. Not entirely. They are an aspect of us seeded into our souls, grown through a lifetime of circumstances, choices, experiences. And we rarely realize the shape of who we are until long after the moments which that knowledge might have made a difference, when we might have chosen to change. And just as little do we understand the shape of everyone around us.
So the question is, which of these am I?
And which are you?
