Believing and You

I get it!  Life is a process. Our inner self emerges over time. And it takes a lot of time, a lifetime to give the process its full measure.  So, if you are hard on yourself for making a few wrong turns while ‘maturing’, let it be. Those are learning opportunities.  Like Joel Osteen cautions us,

“Quit beating yourself up. You are not a finished product. You are still a work in progress.”

It takes some time to learn this point. Often we encounter it even when we think we have learned the lesson well! How many gaffs have I made at weddings, funerals, yes even anniversaries and retirement parties!  The glib tongue seeks camaraderie and instead stumbles into deep embarrassment. Ugh!

Working out the snags and kinks in ‘the who we are’ department takes time and patience. Testing helps, too. Trying out new tempers and ideas works well if you choose the audience carefully!

Trying to be funny is a major trip point. Just think how hilarious Robin Williams was! He did and said things we dared not. His abandonment of carefulness became more daring and funny. Hilarious, even! Not us! We are unaccustomed to this form of humor. And our mistakes become evident quickly.

On a more serious note, George Orwell (1903 – 1950) the British author of 1984, provided this quote for our attention:

            “The people will believe what the media tells them they believe.”

If this is true, then what is belief? Or more exactly what do people actually believe? Do they parrot to others what they think will be acceptable, or what they recently read that sounded intelligent, or are they actually speaking what they do believe? And if the latter fits, at what stage of development is the belief?  Is it the product of years of experience and testing by the individual? Or is it a happenstance utterance with no foundation of feeling and understanding?

It is this incomplete personal investment of work that allows people to believe what they hear or read. Upon closer inspection those same people would more likely change their statements.

During heated political campaign seasons people do toss about political beliefs that are wholly inconsistent with the examples and analogies touted with them. It is clear they are delivering a scripted thought that follows someone they intend to vote for in the approaching election.

Rather they should give it time and thought. They might find that they have been given a line of baloney that is easily discounted.

As Michelle Obama has stated,

“Always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals.”

Your goals. Your beliefs. Your consistency of thought. Distracted easily from these? Then you may not be thinking deeply enough, or paying close attention, or perhaps are too distracted from who you really are. Being true to you is not easy work.  Far from it!

Of course we can ask ‘why do we care?’  That’s a good question. This quote from the internet is, of course, anonymous, but is a good place to close today:

“The older I get, the less I care about what people think of me. Therefore the older I get, the more I enjoy life.”

That depends on how you spend your time in your advancing age. If you spend it with lots of people you may need to practice diplomacy to get along and learn from them. Doing so proves you do care what others think. Besides, without that care you may miss out on much that you disagree on. Just think what you are missing!

September 17, 2014