Unfortunately, the great wisdom I had expected would come with age never materialized- I will re-read the users manual I guess- perhaps that is supposed to happen at the 60th birthday...?
I have had good relationships, and relationships that nearly destroyed me utterly and completely- I have gotten a little better understanding people, their motivations and their hidden intents... but only a little- I have no understanding of how large groups of people can behave the way they do, how they can be so easily manipulated- I have come up with some very tentative hypotheses on how to live your life- probably best summed up by:
All of us are living a fiction, none of us get to write the plot, some of us- if we are very lucky- get bit parts in the fiction that influence the overall plot for the better. The only real input we have to the fiction is most, but not all, of us get some input into writing the character we play in this fiction- we can try to contribute a good character to the story- write one we would admire, and respect...
Or you can turn that authorship over to a ghost writer- let them write your character, let them tell you what you love, fear, hate and aspire to be- let them decide how you react to events in the plot.
Some completely hand over authorship to a romantic partner, some to the expectations of society, some to a charismatic political or religious leader, far too many hand it over to Fox News-
None of us get 100% control over the writing of our characters, but we should aspire to write as much of it as possible.
Off Topic » in reply to Relationships don't always turn out the way we'd prefer.
I recently hit my 50th year on this planet...
The whole thread (44 posts)
- Fear, a story
- Deimos and Phobos
- and another perspective (lighthearted from my point of view)
- From a different perspective
- I probably wouldn't run... but not because I am some macho badass...I just can't run fast
- You have to wonder what motivates assholes like that...
- You call them rednecks.