Lineage

[phantasm]

Where did we come from? Where are we going?

The past can cast a long shadow over our lives,

Even when it's being cast by someone long since dead.

We may not even know whose shadow it is that darkens our lives.

We follow the example of those who came before us: our parents

They followed their parents' examples

and those before, as well

back and back

The thoughts we were taught

The emotions that we caught

The routines that were wrought

They're all the legacy of the past.

Contagion gets passed down like a sexually transmitted disease:

A fixed mindset

Thoughts of helplessness: "Well, you're stuck in it now!"

A mentality born of poverty

A spiritual snobbery

A presumption the world will stay the way it always has been

OR

A growth mindset

Thoughts of empowerment: "Give it it try!"

Healthy humility

Teaching your kids how to adapt to new situations

A healthy relationship with money

Either way--

It's in our blood and it's in our brains

It's under our skin

It's in our muscle and sinew

What sorts of contagion have we received? What are we passing along to the next generation?

We are human beings. We have choices. We must become aware of what our choices are.

What does it take to leave the tribe? How do we strike out on our own into the wild? Who or what shall we follow?

I want to overcome my past

I want to overcome my blood

I want to overcome my circumstances

I want to create a new lineage for myself.

I want a transfusion into a new bloodline.

Somebody adopt me! Teach me how to live in this crazy world.

What kind of lineage do you want for yourself?

[darkness0within]

Very insightful words phantasm.

Very true we carry a lot of baggage through life with us, and we hold the notion we must conform to what is expected by family, sometimes even friends. Also sometimes to people we've never met. And most times we don't even realize.

An excellent thought provoking write.

[moseley]

Damn that Christopherson!!! freedom is just another word...yada yada...but then, the three names of cats, two imposed like rude suppositories but that one name, the only only it knows of itself....we could word play on the sell-f, we've been there before and I do feel, we are our great, great, greatsie's deja vu, just the signal back to them is removed, and only our children will get it forwardly, and even now, they hold no camp for it, they are going away from it, and even in so doing, rediscovering it, as if it has an inescapable nature, well, were are what we are, it is the definition of what, that is, which we are still waiting for...