“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” – Pericles
All human life is special regardless of occupation, status, achievements, material acquisition, and any other socially derived label. Living is courageous. Individuals must learn not to fear or run away from it, but instead embrace it wholeheartedly. Too often, there are some individuals who grow into adulthood and forget how to feel special as they learn they may not fulfill society’s definitions of success or their childhood imaginings of their futures. However, they are mistaken, since by the very act of breathing entitles them to behold themselves within the grand spectra of the world and the experiences offered by it. There is purpose in bearing witness to life and what is before us. Each of us are a developing story with ongoing character, plot, and spin-off development. The spin-offs represent the lives of others who have felt the powerful influence from one individual and taking it with them into their own lives. In other words, the spin-off is the embodiment of realizing meaningful connection with others. Whether individuals are able to share their stories on a cinema screen or not and unless an individual voluntarily chooses solitude, individuals have the ability to take control of their story and share it with those closest in proximity.
The idea of “specialness” is socially derived. Part of the reason why many grow older and slump into a spell of disillusionment is due to their kind of exposure and interaction with the images and ideas that have loomed in the world before they were born. The abstract notions are set into place and for the most part only change gradually as society’s attitudes and perceptions shift throughout history as demonstrated through the West’s women’s movement of the early 20th century, which led to the group’s suffrage and later to the group’s acceptance by society to work outside the home. Definitions, or rather norms and conventions, are established by those who either participate within an invisible, yet formidable, apparatus that delineates between good and bad, acceptable and non-acceptable, and any other binaries or they are powerful enough to wield and impose their own ideas of community structure upon everyone else. While there is evidence available to demonstrate and argue how the existence of the power structure leads the way for social progress and growth, there is still value in knowing and developing awareness about what, why, and how something comes into the sphere of language, conceptualization, and implementation. Then, the next step is to self-regulate one’s own ideas, opinions, and overall identities in response with the newly acquired understanding.
When a step back is taken to slow down and truly examine oneself and the life one has an individual is more clear-minded to question the establishment in greater depths such as why are the requirements for feeling special attached to some degree of grandiosity. More importantly, an individual is empowered to both prosecute and judge the floating attitudes toward what “special” means. In other words, an individual is able to reject until further notice previous definitions until the case is examined. Innovation, creativity, and problem-solving are not limited to certain jobs or equipped children by design who have and accept every opportunity and investment given to them all the way up to the first real career job; they occur in the everyday interweaving interactions individuals have with their environments in finding and creating meaningful connections with others, the world, and themselves. Focus on the good and notice how authentically feeling special will not resist in difficult.
In addition, and somewhat separate, the link provided below leads to an interesting article summarizing global progress.
//E.G.//
againstmodernconsciousness 