Savvy Sunset

Bible Verse:

Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

Jeremiah 10:2




  I learned to speak before the age of one.  My parents reminisce on how extraordinarily awkward it looked for a baby so young to be speaking with almost impeccable annunciation.  I don't know how I managed to learn to speak so quickly considering the fact that I was an easy baby, all I did was eat and sleep, so my parents very rarely found the need to speak to me.  You would normally think that a human who learned to speak so early in it's life would be a social butterfly, but strangely enough, I have always been the loner I am.

  [I don't mean "loner" with the modern day negative connotation it contains.  I was a loner in a sense that I was happier with my lone interactions with the world rather than any type of social interactions.  I still remember how I spent my days as a toddler, I was an natural explorer with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. I never found the need for anybody.  Imaginary friends were also non-existent.  Even now, I find that a difficult concept to grasp.]

   

INFLUENCE

  That's what all your decisions come down to.  For every little thing and any single being, not a single movement is done without the unfathomable power of influence.

  For an inanimate example: a river pebble. Let's forget where it came from (color, and size), and focus on it's texture (feels).  No matter which rock you pick up from the river (any river), you'll notice they will all share the same attribute of texture.  It's going to be a smooth rock.  I'm sure we can all imagine why, with the water currents and time and what-not.  The point i'm trying to make, is that the rocks in the river were shaped and textured identically because they shared influences.  In contrast to that, a pebble that was at one point in time part of the river (a.k.a. "river pebble") that is now and had been dry land for a century or so would be significantly rougher in texture than that an actual river pebble.  That would be because it no longer shares the influence it use to, and the new influences cause it to alter into a different texture.

  Call it Chemistry. Call it Evolution. Call it whatever you want. The fact of the matter is that it was shaped due to it's immediate environment.  And if you haven't noticed by now, anything or anyone in your immediate environment is going to influence you.  The way it influences you is what sets us apart from the rest.  It's what you refer to as "personality".  Since we, as a species. experience a tremendous amount of influences, the outcomes are literally infinite unlike the river pebbles.  People aren't simply categorized as "smooth", or "rough". There's more to us.  We choose to live the life we are living.

Sometimes I listen to this song to help me sleep and hope it influences my dreams.

“We are visitors on this planet. We are here for one hundred years at the very most. During that period we must try to do something good, something useful, with our lives. if you contribute to other people's happiness, you will find the true meaning of life.”

― H.H. The 14th Dalai Lama

~Juan E. Casas S.