Thoughts on the Past
As I think about where I am and where I am going, I inevitably think about where I have bee. We tend to judge out future in accordance with our past. This can be useful in some ways. It’s how we learned not to touch a hot stove or mix a big dinner with a night full of drinking.
However, it can also be a hindrance. We don’t want watching daddy hitting mommy as a child to teach us that kind of behavior is acceptable or normal. And yet we live in a society that declares ‘if one does it – they all do it’, which is neither fair nor even correct. Our past is filled with classifying ‘them’ and ‘us’ as if it was normal, even good behavior.
But if we speak up to point out that it’s not good behavior to mistreat ‘them’, we are simply accused as being one of ‘them’ and thus ignored.
We live very much in a ‘them vs. us’ culture that almost encourages the prosecution of those who are different. Normalcy and herd philosophy are to be encouraged and admired. Those who ‘dare to be different’? Well, good luck to them.
I could, based off my past, declare that all ‘those’ religious people are blind and will do anything to convert those around them.
But I don’t.
I dare to be different.
I accept my past, but I don’t let it rule my future. I don’t let it throw me into yet another ‘them vs. us’ match that can never be won. I accept that there are good and bad people in every culture, colour, and creed.
I do it for my heart. And for my sanity.
And I do it because I feel the sooner I move past the ‘them vs. me’ mentality and other negative traits of my past, the sooner I can move past the scope of my immediate reality and on to greater things.
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