Now - I have had all of 60 years to think about things like this and I admit - my own 'mental gymnastics' have kept me amused and entertained over the years - I love tangling with people's thought processes - No work or play is ever boring if there are people -and the workings of their minds and lives to contemplate!
This morning - lying in bed with a sore chest and a temperature - the doctor prescribed 3 days at a Spa and I plan to comply asap after elections and my eldest sons wedding in 2014' - I picked up a magazine I like to read - 'Destiny' and was confronted with these cool words:
"Before I can say 'I am', I was...I am everything I ever was. I am much of what my parents and especially my grandparents were: inherited stature, coloring, brains, bones, plus transmitted prejudices, culture, scruples, likings, moralities and moral errors that I defend as if they were personal and not familial,"
Written by Wallace Stegner in 'Angle of Repose'
While the concept of 'heritage' has a collective and individual connotation - these words focus us in on our unique and individual selves - its true - no matter what has influenced us and how we have grown - we will have a tendency to act or speak not just out of who we are but who we were - if we do not consciously choose.
I have been aware for years that I have inherited strengths and weaknesses, solid values and biases which I pass on to my children and others if I do not take a moment to consider exactly where my responses, words and actions stem from.
Culture - the way I perceive it - is a precious gift - but can be a curse if we let it imprison us - I want to value and learn from those who have gone before - but the end result should be better - more of the strengths and less of the weaknesses.
This tweet caught my eye this week
@BelindaMosesSA: “@lebolukewarm: "I am who I am" - what shitty people tend to say a lot.” Just heard that over the phone now. I said OK!
Hehe - just saying!
