Images that I do not agree with influence my perception of the world before I have even perceived the world for myself. When I was younger things werent like that. I made my way through these paths with relative ease, as I passed people along the way, they were who they were. Now, those people are who I think they are. Its seems as though as I have walked longer distances and met more people I have begun to decide who the people are that I meet before I have actually met them. I am putting great emphasis on the thoughts that seem to colour my everyday experience.
The truth is that I still like to walk slowly and meet people for who they are, but the impression left from past meetings, from authority figures that taught me to be wary seem to linger. I think I understand what they were trying to do. You see, with humans, we all look the same. In the animal world, the predator looks like a predator. With humans, we all look the same. So what we do is we take small differences in appearances, or in the sounds that our mouths make, and based on this, call that kind of human the predator, or the scavenger, or the other.
You, I need to question this dichotomy that I am facing. Do I hate this group of people, or do I love them? I say out loud, I love them, but in my heart, in my deep thoughts that surface when I speak for the sake of speaking, I find that there is this hate, this impression that apprehends me when I am faced with the other. I think the only way to make peace with these thoughts is to take on board what my teacher figures have taught with some of my own salt. People arent all good all the time. Be ware, when you love you are completely open. Most people are good, no matter what they look or sound like, but no matter what they look or sound like, they can hurt you. Dont be ware of being hurt, but be ware in the way that you expect that when you love, you will be hurt. That is part of loving. Those images are there to remind you that love is not the feeling of flying through marshmallow clouds. The impression does not specifically belong to any characteristic of humanness, the impression reminds us that there is personal risk in embracing a life of fullness. Risk even just for making that decision.
It is most attractive and most brave to do something so grand. In the face of the risks you face for such a decision, despite that, the reward is incomparable.