TODAY'S POTPOURRI OF THOUGHTS

Sometimes on some days I can work up a good piece for writing. But then again at some other times I work out not just one but several inspirations for writing. Thus you’ll see that I have posts wherein several thoughts are gathered after every favored quote listed. Why do I use quotes? It helps crystallize the idea forming in my mind. And where there are several ideas all wanting to be written, I need those quotes to get it all sorted out properly. Then writing becomes easy. Give it a try; I know that others have already. So then let's get this rolling. :-)

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"The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else." -- E. E. Cummings

I had this frustration every time an aunt or uncle and family friends would come up to me in our family reunions and wonder why I am not this or that, like everybody else. They wonder why I am not a doctor or a lawyer or a businesswoman like my cousins before me or are into right now. Know what I’d do with that? I’d look them in the eye and say ‘I have my own interests and inclinations and doing quite well with it, thank you’ --- And my mom, who could overhear the chat (wherever she was in the room. Weird lols), would simply nod and smile in my direction. Well, at least she was on my side.

So I went on to be me. It may not suit their expectations of grandeur success or opulence but this was me, I would tell myself and which I had to remind myself lots of times because there was seemingly no let-up on their assault on my individuality. Mom would always remind me that --- ”we aren’t made into one mold; each is a separate unique creation – and that whatever we do with ourselves and with the talent given us whether it be as an astronaut or a lowly sales clerk – would still be worthy. Do not belittle a person’s honest effort. She stressed that one should only be true to one’s self and that one must be loyal to his or her passion in life. Because doing what you love best is what gives genuine satisfaction. And that is essential to true living. Success is not about what you have done but in what you are happy and content about inside you.”

“It’s important not to define yourself by what you are, but by who you are.”

This line I heard in a home movie long ago. It’s easy to know WHAT we are, right? – A doctor, truck driver, judge, cop, teacher, street sweeper, CEO, inventor, scientist, parent, son or daughter, and many more. It’s a profession or an occupation and we do things naturally required of us in those roles we play in life, individually or collectively.

But WHO we are is the tough question that we also must deal with. Who are we as a person? What makes us tick or not tick? What do we do with life’s crazy things posed to us at some point or another? What values form our thoughts and feelings and which define our relationships in our tiny spaces or with the bigger world outside?

As a competent surgeon for instance, the WHAT in me would make me do an operation with astounding success as expected of my surgical competence of course. But in another case, when it comes to telling the family that a procedure would be a high risk one for the patient, the WHO in me would tell me to say it gently, with careful sensitivity and consideration for the feelings of the much beleaguered family.

Thus I would think that the WHAT is rather clinical in approach; the WHO – much human and humane.

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." -- Alvin Toffler

That is simply what life is all about. We must do a lot of learning in our journey through life but there is never enough time to do it because Life is short. Too short to learn everything there is to learn. But if life should mean anything at all, it should be how well we do these three things ---

LEARN. We are taught our new skills, new principles to serve as road map in our transactions, new information and abilities to enhance our enjoyment of life and living… of people and the world of things around us. Still there is so much more to learn. The well never runs dry.

UNLEARN. Useless mind sets, thoughts, ideas, perceptions which don’t do us any good at all - These things which mess up our life or have outlived their time or even stand in the way of our progress maturity growth and development -- should be but definitely destroyed and annihilated permanently.

RELEARN. Those things which lessons we still haven’t fully understood or grasped will never go away but keep repeating itself. Ever wonder why life keeps throwing back at us the same problems and people we’d rather do without? Well, it does that until we get its message clearly, until the idea pierce our dumb heads and numb hearts, or until we see truth and not the illusions we’d rather see and believe.

Well, this is all for now… today’s potpourri of thoughts, more next time. Bye for a bit.