CHARACTER IS TIMELESS
Jann Burner
May 03, 2006
Character is timeless. But we do not grow chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, sometimes in another. Sometimes there are whole dimensions in which there is little or no growth. It is a very uneven process. It is all partial and relative. We can be mature in one realm and quite childish in another. A genius in one world; an idiot savant in another; autistic in a third. The ego attempts to serve as a mixing board to all this input, hoping to be able to distill and mix out a commercially acceptable product. Something with a strong sound and a good beat; something you can dance to.
But the true condition of most people's lives can be best described as...situational living. On the whole it can be classified as neither good--nor bad. For in the main it is merely predictable and...boring. But if it were to change (and the truth were known) they would surely miss it: miss the situation they find themselves in, for above all things the boringness is security and the predictability smells of home, and it is all their own. It is possibly all they have....
It is hard to change?very much. We continue to see the world filtered through a very personal set of prejudices and pseudo-values. The vibrational zones and pockets of habitual conduct become so familiar and comfortable, even the most tenuous and aberrant become like warm old blankets that are permeated with the aroma of our life.
It comes down to how we view our experience. Young people see every day as another day. Older people can look back on their lives and recognize certain specific days as being pivotal. There are special days, days that will rule the rest of your life. Days that will reverberate like a Chinese gong and send their vibrations with you for the rest of your days on this earth. These days do not have to be the happiest nor the saddest; often these crucial days are the most ordinary, seeming to turn on the most insignificant event. Your eyes meet those of a stranger on a crowded street and without knowing it, at that exact moment neither of your lives will ever be the same again. You'll drive across a bridge and casually glance over at a sailboat gliding by on the water in the distance, ghosting across the horizon like a slow thought, and that image will haunt you forever.
Sometimes I think that there are perhaps no more than five or ten truly pivotal days in a person's live, the rest are just padding; emotional Styrofoam put in place to give protection to the spirit as it moves through its handful of crucial days.
Notice the difference between how an older person sees and how a younger person sees their days. An older person sits with a distant look in the eye. They will be looking deep into the past or far into the future. They will be looking into the distance and seeing things that aren't there. They will be analyzing thoughts and feelings with their eyes. Look at a young person watching something. The young person will focus on the immediate distance free from future consideration. A young person's eyes dance on the surface, eating the particles of light. The young person looks at the play of light and the ripples on the water.
The older person's eye is searching beneath the surface for the leviathans, for the schools of fish, for the submerged coral head, the wreck, the potential hazard to navigation, the shark that has stolen their years and made them old. The young person wants experience. The older person wants revenge....
But the true condition of most people's lives can be best described as...situational living. On the whole it can be classified as neither good--nor bad. For in the main it is merely predictable and...boring. But if it were to change (and the truth were known) they would surely miss it: miss the situation they find themselves in, for above all things the boringness is security and the predictability smells of home, and it is all their own. It is possibly all they have....
It is hard to change?very much. We continue to see the world filtered through a very personal set of prejudices and pseudo-values. The vibrational zones and pockets of habitual conduct become so familiar and comfortable, even the most tenuous and aberrant become like warm old blankets that are permeated with the aroma of our life.
It comes down to how we view our experience. Young people see every day as another day. Older people can look back on their lives and recognize certain specific days as being pivotal. There are special days, days that will rule the rest of your life. Days that will reverberate like a Chinese gong and send their vibrations with you for the rest of your days on this earth. These days do not have to be the happiest nor the saddest; often these crucial days are the most ordinary, seeming to turn on the most insignificant event. Your eyes meet those of a stranger on a crowded street and without knowing it, at that exact moment neither of your lives will ever be the same again. You'll drive across a bridge and casually glance over at a sailboat gliding by on the water in the distance, ghosting across the horizon like a slow thought, and that image will haunt you forever.
Sometimes I think that there are perhaps no more than five or ten truly pivotal days in a person's live, the rest are just padding; emotional Styrofoam put in place to give protection to the spirit as it moves through its handful of crucial days.
Notice the difference between how an older person sees and how a younger person sees their days. An older person sits with a distant look in the eye. They will be looking deep into the past or far into the future. They will be looking into the distance and seeing things that aren't there. They will be analyzing thoughts and feelings with their eyes. Look at a young person watching something. The young person will focus on the immediate distance free from future consideration. A young person's eyes dance on the surface, eating the particles of light. The young person looks at the play of light and the ripples on the water.
The older person's eye is searching beneath the surface for the leviathans, for the schools of fish, for the submerged coral head, the wreck, the potential hazard to navigation, the shark that has stolen their years and made them old. The young person wants experience. The older person wants revenge....
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