So much depends on where you are, how you are brought up, your circumstances. I was born, and remain , intrinsically middle class, comfortably off, definitely not rich. A job that gives satisfaction, mostly, and a family. No jail birds, no drug addicts. So to reflect:
Pretend I was born in Scotland. In a very poor area, maybe in Granton. Lots of shouting at night. The stairways smelling of urine and vomit. Most of the older men, and many of the women, drunks. Most of the younger generation druggies. Lots of teenage pregnancy. Lots of violence. It's a scene I can visualise as have visited professionally on many occasions. But that's very different from living there. Would I have attended school? What would the school have been like? Never been properly clean. Never been able to rely on anyone else. Bullied a lot, too fat and too clever. Would I be the same now? I don't think so. Intelligence rises, but you still need the right circumstances. Would I have had the willpower to kep working, or would I have taken the apparently easier path.
It's a hard reflection, difficult to imagine, and I've picked a lifestyle I know some things about. What about living as a black in white South Africa? Or a Native American on a reservation. Trying to imagine it is beyond me. I am trapped in my own thinking patterns. So how much can I truly understand others?
How much does my sense of self depend on what's around me, the trappings of a lifestyle where things often seem as important as people. No space in my house is empty. No space is uncluttered. Everything holds memories. I am a collector. Not of things of external value, but of small objects, of books, of music, of pictures. Would I still be me without them? How much of my persona is internal, and how much external?
So, a chance and a change, become more compassionate, and more accepting of compassion directed at me. I think the latter is the more difficult. Treat it as fun. Look forward. Accept.
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