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It is always good to view any item, or any subject, in different light.
These two pictures were taken 2 hours and 2 minutes apart.
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There is nothing at all profound in this but all too often I think we forget to put ourselves in the place of someone we might have a disagreement with.
Perhaps it’s an inherent defence mechanism. If someone is different, they are a potential threat. Better to eliminate them than to negotiate common ground.
It’s a very simplistic view but I think deep down all our problems are very basic and those who crave power manipulate.
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Exposed at an early age to vastly different cultures, I quickly realised that people are all basically the same no matter their colour or creed.
What did make a difference was their position on the economic scale.
A child can really only see such things in a very basic way.
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In South East Asia at the age of eight, I found myself alone a great deal or otherwise in the company exclusively of adults.
Unable to converse, I became an observer.
The people who rotated through my early life were quite diverse. Some were friends of my parents, others colleagues or acquaintances,
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Inevitably, I overheard my parent’s comments which influenced the way I thought, when I was very young.
Then I befriended an Australian girl and spent time with her family. I saw that they were different and that I rather liked being with them.
When I was eleven I went off to boarding school and apart from holidays I never again lived with my parents.
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For many years I seemed to spend quite a lot of time in transit from one place to another, which gave me many opportunities to observe all sorts of people.
That is where my feelings and opinions came from and maybe that is why they are simplistic.
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Life was so often complicated, having loyalties to family members who were geographically distant.
Trying to please everyone without ever really succeeding. It made me long for simplicity.
To a large extent this was achieved as a matter of course, as I lost those to whom I felt tied, however remotely that had been.
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As I grew older, I found myself becoming more isolated. This was not intentional, but I resisted social attachments telling myself that I was socially awkward and that I felt uncomfortable around other people.
There was certainly truth in this, but I can see now that I was basically severing connections until I finally made the ultimate withdrawal by moving Upstate New York.
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At the time I had no such thought. The idea of moving my entire life, including the many cats I was responsible for, came totally out of the blue.
In Washington State I had become no longer comfortable and the solution was to go. It was impractical, expensive, difficult, risky, stressful and exhausting.
Worthwhile achievements often are.
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It was the best decision I ever made, if I can even call it a decision. Rather it was a matter of allowing myself to be carried along by instinct.
It was the same instinct that had taken me out to Seattle 18 years earlier, which was also a good decision for me then.
How did I know it was instinct and not some awful mistake? I can’t even explain it to myself.
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All I can say is that these decisions were totally uninfluenced by anyone else. Others gave input once the decision was made, but I stuck to my course because I knew I had to.
It must seem as though I am very self-confident? Nothing could be further from the truth!
Maybe I trust in a guardian angel?
No, not that, nor anything of the kind.
Maybe it is simply that I am lucky.
I like keeping things simple.
I’m a great believer in “Que Sera Sera”!
I was never one for acting on impulse. Then I did just that when I married my second wife after only 10 months together. Though she was a nice woman, it had been a bad idea for me to marry again at that time, and I learned a lesson from that mistake. Since then, I have never acted on impulse, but I am happy to hear that it worked for you..
Best wishes, Pete.
My default inclination is to analyse things from every angle but when I made those two moves it was as if another brain took over.
We love simplicity too – some of our friends don’t, but they accept us (and our unconventional ways). Then you know you have true friends. The choices you made all these years without the influence of other people were the right choices (maybe not for other people, but definitely for you … and in the end, that’s all that matters).