Greetings from My Mountain Cabin,
My wife, Annette, is known for her yogiisms. So labeled in recollection of witticisms spoken by former New York Yankee baseball legend, Yogi Berra, a yogiism is a statement that almost seems to make sense in a convoluted way. Yogi (the real one) would say things like:
✶ "You can observe a lot just by watching."
✶ "Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded."
✶ "It ain't the heat; it's the humility."
✶ "The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my suitcase."
✶ "I always thought that record would stand until it was broken."
✶ "If you can't imitate him, don't copy him."
One of my favorite Annette yogiisms is:
✶ "It's hard to be objective about yourself."
And that certainly makes sense (I think). We are the sum total of our experiences in life, values and traditions inculcated in us by our parents and other authority figures, plus environmental/social variables. There is no way we can step out of our drama and look at ourselves without bias. Out level of enlightenment is determined by the pathway we have walked.
I grew up in New Jersey, about 11 miles from the Lincoln Tunnel—gateway to New York City. Being so close to the Big Apple, many in our small town liked to think of ourselves as urbane. Our values and our perspectives were no doubt honed by daily living in metropolitan America.
Throughout history courses in grammar and high school, we were told the American Civil War (1861-1865) was fought to free the slaves. The good guys wore blue and our misguided enemy wore gray.
Relocating to the South many years later, I discovered my contemporaries who were raised in what was once the Confederacy embraced a different point of view. The War of Northern Aggression (1861-1865) was fought because the federal government in Washington, DC, did not allow sovereign states to function according to their own dictates. The war was fought for economic principles that had little to do with slavery.
Clearly, the level of enlightenment achieved by a youngster in the South could be markedly different from that gained by a similar student in the North. And no doubt there is a grain of truth to each.
The potential for differing cultural values is unlimited.
✶ Someone growing up on the mean streets of large city might see Do unto others before they do unto you as a philosophy for survival.
✶ The child of an adult member of a hate group might learn to embrace racial animosity simply because that was the way s/he was brought up.
✶ Members of a religious group who wholeheartedly believe adhering to their theological precepts is necessary for salvation in an afterlife, may feel duty-bound to convince you of their way of thinking.
✶ Adolescent peer pressure has often led to abuses of freedom and violation of the law.
Even though it is impossible for us to be objective about ourselves, we can recognize the differences we encounter in others as demonstrations of Truth as they see it.
Rarely do the actions of others impact our lives, unless we let them. When we allow ourselves to become upset because others have not performed according to our expectations, we are giving them free rent in our brain. Your distress will not change their behavior.
Simply accept or ignore the foibles and shortcomings of others without emotional investment. They may be doing the same for you.
Be well, do good work, keep in touch,
Ed
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