Questioning Assumptions

Don’t let your assumptions stop you from looking further.  It is so easy, natural really, to look at people and their behaviors and say either to ourselves, or out loud, “well I wouldn’t have done that, I would have……..”  You can finish the sentence.  I can hear myself, “I would have made better choices, or seen that coming, or have been more (or less) …...”  But would we have if we had the same life experiences and resources of that other person.  Please, no responses about liberal relativism or humanistic psycho-babble.

 I have looked at both extremes and I use the example of winning the lottery. (Now I don’t play the lottery because “I make better choices of how I spend my money”-See how easy it is).  But if I suddenly had millions of dollars would I make the same choices I do now.  First thing I would have to do is start working with lawyers and accountants and worrying about all that money.  I would have to start screening calls, mail, emails from people wanting some of it.  I would need more security, a bigger house in a gated community, private investigators to look into any scams/claims on the money.  Machine guns on the roof top?   The money and how to deal with and protect it would be my life.  Oh no, I am different, that wouldn’t be me. 

I don’t know, I think I would have to give away all of it as soon as possible, or better yet, don’t play the lottery (done).  And I like to think that I am a well-grounded person with simple tastes with no need to surround myself with things, and yet……  What would I really do?  How would I change, and how could I not change is some ways?  Maybe not my value system but my behavior and life experiences would and that would change me in some ways, maybe good as well as bad.  But my point is that there is no way, even at nearly 60 that I can guarantee that I would make the same choices.  And if you put yourself in a family without money, higher education, stability or positive role models, the potential difference is even more extreme between who I am now and who I would be in that life of limitation.  I am not asking you to excuse the bad behaviors of others who have made choices you don’t approve of, not at all.  But I am asking you to be less shocked when those behaviors happen and to understand that they may have a different viewpoint based on their life experiences.