Perspective

The reason why our generation looks oddly at people who love to keep everything, ie. Packrats... is because in our society today everything is easy to acquire from anywhere. Those of generations before us were taught to save everything... They grew up in the depression. You had to save everything. Little wonder it passed on to many in the next generation. Little wonder.



So when we think of packrats in a negative light in our culture that is simply the result of our cultural programming. We were raised buying what we want and not making due with what was there. They were raised being forced to make due with what was there because it's all they had available. Today we buy new things rather than fix the old. We have junk yards full of old things which work perfectly well that have been exchanged for the new.


It is hard to see clearly when we see through unclear perceptions and preformed judgements. What is real? And what is real only because we accept it as true... Yet have never sounded its depths? Our perceptions and judgements stem from things we hardly ever seem to see and seldom realize or look upon. Let us consider some of the simple things we simply accept as the way things are when in actuality there was a point in time when it became that way. Now those ideas color how we see the world and what we see as right or wrong and common sense or nonsense.
 
 
Why do we drive on the right side of the road or steer from the left side of the car? Why do we read left  to right instead of right to left? Why is our alphabet what it is? Why is goal setting so important? Why is money many times more important than anything in our society? Why are Americans known as business men and adventurers? Is it well earned? Why is the keyboard laid out as it is?
 
 
How many other simple things are there all around us that we take for granted without knowing why? Why do we sit in chairs instead of cross legged on the ground? Why is it unprofessional for men to have long hair or a beard today when it was more than acceptable in the past? What changed?
 
 
We think these small things don't matter and yet they color everything we see and do. They color how we treat people. These things that simply are change everything. Yet we accepted them at some point in our lives as true. They may or may not be true... simply another way to experience reality. If you go to another country... life is very different and they see things totally differently than we do. Why? Those same small things that they believe simply are. And we wonder why we are sometimes shocked by other cultures customs and why they are shocked by ours? Perspective.
 
 
What are the little ideas in your life? Look at the things you believe simply are. What is common sense to you? Is that nonsense to someone else? Why do you behave as you do in social situations? in relationships? in school? at work? What underlying ideas brought about your interpretations of your surroundings?
 
 
All things originate in thought. It is the beginning of all we see, and know, and experience. Thought becomes motion and motion, action. Action brings us life as we experience it and yet we seldom think of thought as the origination point of all we have, possess and experience. It is the small and simply thought which truly does move mountains and change the course of history. What underlying thoughts have been accepted as true in your mind? Where do they lead? What has happened in your life as a result? Are your expectations realistic? or does that come from another thought somewhere deep down about what is expected or, even, realistic?
 
 
Thought is the hardest of all work and that is exactly why a great man once said "that is why so few engage in it." Take a moment and figure out the underlying thoughts of your life and your family and your culture. Where have they led you and where will they lead you?