Nature vs Nurture

Nature is what we are born with. Those innate feelings that are encoded in our DNA. The instincts carried down, generation to generation. We are born with it all and we cannot help what we feel. There are parts of the brain unmapped. They say it is the soul. What's contained in those parts are things that are who we, as people, are. The human condition, as so many classic novels suggest. These things cannot be learned.

Nurture is what you grow up in. Your environment. You are taught things through the reward and punishment system. If you do something and it makes good feelings or gets you good things, you associate the two and therefore do that thing for that feeling. You are conditioned, as well. You can be conditioned in your interests, sense of humor, and many other things. You are, in essence, taught what choices to make.

They say our choices make us who we are, but it seems as though they make our life what it is. It's what's IN the choice that makes us. On the surface, it makes changes, large and small, to our lives. But deep down, the reasons for our choices are what truly matter. Our nature is what we feel but our nurture is what we do. Not always the same thing. We are but cups. We are empty at birth. And we are all different sizes and shapes of cups. We are filled with water, our nurturing. But, the water shapes to the cup. You are born with your size and shape. Nothing can change that. The only thing that can change is the water inside.

Both roles play a part. Nature decides what we truly feel in our hearts. What we know to be our own personal truths. What we are born with. Our conscience. Things can be passed down or mutations can occur. Or even divine intervention, if you choose to believe so. Nurture plays its role as well. You learn what to associate with what. Tradition, culture, and the like show you what is wrong and right in that particular society. But you only do these things for the reasons you are born with. And that just cannot change.

When doth the sleeping wake?

The greatest battle one will ever face is that between innocence and experience. We are born into the world asleep. We lack any transient thoughts. There is no judging. There is no drama. We look at everything as an empty cup waiting to be filled. We are, in essence, ignorant. So we are open minded. We can accept anything. and we don't have to worry about any sort of tragedy. Our future is a mere fantasy. We can barely even conceive consequences. We are blind to everything and are therefore the happiest we could ever be. We do just to do and think nothing of it.

But, as we grow older, we begin to awaken to what the world really is. The emotional pain, the sexual happenings, the drugs, etc. We learn about everything. It varies from person to person when you learn these things. Nowadays, the generations are learning it at a younger and younger age. They miss out on their childhood. What it's like to feel free from the constraints of worry and fear. And the more experienced you get, the faster the process goes. It is an exponential growth of knowledge.

From this, our society is endowed with the pursuit of knowledge. We strive to find more and more answers. We look to satisfy all our needs, whether it is our natural human curiosity or our need for pleasure. We hunger more and more and it guides our actions. We look at things through new eyes. We fill our cup with empty answers. We close our minds to new and different possibilities. This causes us to judge. To hate. To commit great acts of violence against one another because we think we are doing right. The experience drives us to lose our own humanity, whether on a small or large scale.

Society as a whole is losing sight of what matters because we refuse to remember where we came from. Oscar Wilde once said "I am not young enough to know everything." The young have such open minds so they are able to learn more than any older person could dream of learning. We think we find an answer and automatically close the case when in fact we should keep everything open. There is always more to something. Always.

J.D. Salinger understands this battle and writes about it in Catcher in the Rye. if you get past the whiny kid milking his teenage angst to death, you can see what is trying to be said. Growing up is hard. Especially in those years between innocence and experience. You're losing touch with the darkness, the security blanket, and seeing the light, the true pain, but also the true love. You can experience a greater spectrum of emotion and knowledge, but the pendulum must swing both ways. It is a trade we all are forced to make. We can experience more of life, but on both extremes of emotion.

Innocence and experience really boils down to knowledge. How much of it you have or lack. In all aspects of life. It is inevitable we all learn more and therefore have a need to learn even more. Fulfill these needs we discover. But that doesn't mean we should forget where it all began. Remember what it was like to have a childlike sense of wonder. What it's like to look at the world with happy eyes. Think the best of it. Open up to all possibilities.

Prejudice

How does it really come to be? What could make someone hate someone else just because of the way they look? It can become who you are. Your lifestyle. Something so evil can take over entire communities. So much pain can come from it. Not just physical but emotional. And it not only hurts the victim but the antagonizer as well. They just don't notive it because they take it out on others.

It all has to come from a single seed, planted by either your environment or an incident. Or both. Something that makes you look at it as a normal thing. You can be taught it by an important individual in your life at a young age where your morals are still molding. You learn to associate the greatness from that individual with this prejudice, so it becomes normal for you. It's like it isn't even wrong. But, you can still grow out of it because the pain you inflict on them will still get through. No, you must feel this pain yourself. You must feel something like it so you think it, too, is normal.

From this, you become delusional. You begin to look for reason in this madness. You find logic in the evil you think, say, and do. And the seed just continues to grow. You don't notice the true pain welling up inside of yourself because you're always using it. It's like you're swimming and you don't really have the sensation of being wet because you're in the water. You don't know the difference. That is what true pain is. Makes me wanna cry.

It takes something strong to get you out of that. You must have a life affirming change to come out of something like that. Something to bring you out of the water, feel that harsh cold air against your bare skin. That would wake you up to the true pain inside of yourself. The pain you took out on others.

Let us stop it at the source. Don't immerse yourself in lies, thinking that hating someone just because of the way they look is right. Think about what it was like when you were younger. Everyone was just a person. You were in kindergarten. You played with anyone and 5 minutes later, they were your best friend no matter what they looked like. The pain of the world hadn't yet come to you. Let us go back to that. Deal with your pain when it comes. Embrace it. Learn from it. In the end, it saves your life.

Pay it forward

When someone does a good deed for you or something of that sort, you tend to say "I owe you one" or "I'll pay you back." How about we pay it forward? Do a random act of kindness for someone else? Help three people and ask each of them not to pay it back but pay it forward. They help three or more people. And so on. It's an exponential growth of kindness and good deeds. One good turn deserves another, so pay it forward.

Learning

Why do we take advantage of the world around us? Everything you see, do, touch, it all has a lesson to teach. It was all put here for a reason. Why don't we ever just stop and think about it? It would make us all a lot more knowledgeable.

China, in its early years, created a practice quite misunderstood today. It is known as Kung Fu. Now, this is not just a martial art. It is about the world around you. When you master something, it is known as Kung Fu. It is the art of mastery in general. It was known as a martial art because the movements, the technique, it all encompassed you becoming one with yourself. And you cannot do much in the outside world until you master your own world contained within yourself.

The movements were gathered from the world around us. Taking it all in. Learning the connection between everyone and everything, which is known as qui (chee). You use this to become one with yourself and nature. Mastering your own body while projecting it into reality. You can see these movements in all the regular things you and everything else does on a day to day basis. But it is not just about the fighting. It is about appreciating everything the world has to offer.

So every once in a while, try slowing down and looking at something. Think about how it works. What its purpose is. How you could utilize what it does to your own advantage. Think about how it affects everything around it. Because all things are connected one way or another.

"As many ways to live as there are people"

Each one deserves a closer look. The world holds such great diversity. Each person is unique. Not in the cliched way, but in how each person is made of their DNA, contributed by their parents, combined with the culmination of every memory they have experienced, all making a single human being. No two are exactly alike. And one can never know exactly how another feels of what they go through, no matter how similar the problems. Because we all take everything in a different way.

We must always take this into account when we think about others. Take a closer look at them and yourself. Put yourself in their shoes. And that doesn't mean looking at their situation. Look at their feelings. The general root idea of what they feel. Because if you just look at their situation then your idea about them will skew off on a whole other tangent of what YOU believe should happen. So try for empathy rather than a distinct answer. And never, ever judge. Plain and simple, it isn't your job. Just worry about yourself and what you're doing. And as for "good" and "bad," well, there are no good and bad people. Only good and bad decisions. You make the ones you feel is best for you. And only offer help only when it is welcomed. You can only do so much.

Your opinion of yourself and who you are and how you live is the most important one. All others are secondary. You can choose how much they matter to you. Because you are your own person. And everyone else is their own person as well. Think what you want of them. Your opinion is your own right. But that doesn't mean you have to use it. You could be all wrong. Backgrounds differ. There could be a reason for what you see. So consider yourself ignorant to what you see because if you only see with your eyes then you are truly blind. Rather, take a closer look with your heart. What you feel.

If you have to make a choice and it it either makes you or a friend suffer, what do you do?

If you have to make a choice and it it either makes you or a friend suffer, what do you do?

Answer here