Yesterday when you read some of your dad’s letters to you, I felt great pride, love and privilege.
The experience has been on my mind most of this morning. I’m thinking about how much of our beliefs are adopted from the culture and people we are born into. Evidence of this is easy to spot when I reflect on my own life. The document you shared yesterday offered a small porthole into your own experiences.
This is where being “smart” can really be problematic. Having a compulsion of collecting information and tying the patterns together can yield information about people that are disquieting. Questions about one’s worldviews are not usually welcome. Challenges are even less so. Even the simple exploration of asking “why” can be problematic. Just asking a question can often be taken as a challenge – despite the intention.
The smart move is probably to simply ignore the thoughts in this arena. Every person carries the burden of the side effects of their personal characteristics.
I’ve learned that my burden is frequently silence. Failing to do so can prove my mother was right.