I have no clear recollection of exactly when I decided that I had a profound dislike for argument, and strife and shows of force and violence and even battle and war, but I don't think I was much more than maybe 7-8 years old.
I do distinctly remember getting fairly upset with my grade school classmates "because why can't everybody just GET ALONG???"
My parents weren't particularly reassuring, mostly "teaching" me with platitudes like "That's just how human beings ARE."
Part of what upset me was not so much the fact that there were disagreements, but that quite a few kids seemed to start disagreements, simply so they could "have a fight."
I typically got out of fights by either creating a distraction, or by acting like I was insane; stark raving mad. Crazy people tend to make others uneasy...
50 years later I look out across this landscape that is our planet, and look at the horrific events unfolding in Ukraine, and my heart and soul hurts no less today — 50-odd years later — than it did when I was a second grader.
What I also find depressing is the number of times I have been more or less "taken to task" because I didn't believe in "problem solving with your fists." To many, evidently, that made me a "wuss" or somehow "less than."
All these years later, I have gradually come to recognize the fundamental reality that humans tend to predominantly be a very violent species, but that doesn't mean that I am somehow required to like it or accept it, nor that I have reached the point of shrugging and resigning myself to "that's just how it is" thinking.
And yet? This world seems so totally governed by "adversarial thinking." The focus is all on "us VS them" rather than on "us AND them."
Aside from the examples where we are dealing with actual mental illness, we humans seem to fight over some variation of the perceived scarcity of resources... mostly at a personal level. "Resources," of course, can mean a lot of different things to different people... but all have their roots in the fear that we will somehow have to "be without" something we value or perceive we need... from food, to girlfriends/boyfriends, to more money than God.
But something feels wrong or off about the whole thing...
I guess the part I didn't yet get to is people's egos and how that plays into the mix in a typically negative way. So often, the whole thing is driven by people trying to establish or protect some kind of self-image. More than anything, that's one I have never quite been able to figure out.
I mostly have lived my life by the truism that "what other people think about you is THEIR business, not YOURS." Much sleep and inner peace seems to get lost because of this particular worry...
So now I get to the point where I ask myself whether or not there's even a point to this post... and I have to concede that it's mostly just a "brain dump" to try to get some of the frustrating thoughts of futility out of my brain. There's unrest in the world, and the unrestful thoughts have been occupying too much of my brainspace, making me feel rather less focused and productive than I like to!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend!
How about YOU? Ever feel the need to just do a "brain dump?" Even if it doesn't make any particular sense? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20220304 18:02 PST
0515/1761