Why are we afraid of what is unknown to us? Comfort and reassurance are commonly found through the things we know for certain. We feel at peace in our homes, with our families and well-known friends. We’re confident in our language, our dress, the current lifestyle we live. Routine and structure, rules and regulations, allow for people to feel safe, secure, and in control.
Why, as humans, is the plasticity of life so unnerving? Changes from our own beliefs and understandings complicate us; we’re put at unease. Why is it hard to accept diversity, when the world and ourselves are constantly evolving?
The world is so intertwined yet we love to categorize and reason. Labels have come to define who we are and what we believe in. Until recently, exact identification was all that was known. There were no options besides the obvious A, B, C, or D. Straight line reasoning was a general consensus and one answer could explain it all.
But for the world, there is no simple answer.
In life, we are influenced by everyone and everything around us whether we choose to or not. Political, cultural, religious, economic, and social positions attribute to our everyday lives. They overlap and mesh the web we inhabit.
But why must we separate these influences when all of them are inter-disciplinary? To say that something is solely due to religion or solely the effect of culture would be false.
Christmas is a Christian religious holiday that is celebrated mainstream in America. Varying in forms of celebration from commemorating the birth of Jesus to using the season to socialize and share great joys and cheers to everything in-between, it has evolved to a diverse and conformable holiday. Depending on each individual faith, interpretation, location, Christmas has become more than just a religious holiday.
The circumstance of each individual shapes and constantly reshapes their actions.
Schooling is not what it once was a hundred years ago. Education has morphed due to technology, further intellectual discoveries, government,and new political installments. Schools vary across the country and across the world presently and historically; education keeps refreshing. New ideas are continuously formed; updates and adjustments are constantly made.
The way we dress is not just credited to where we are from. If we look at how people dressed in our country throughout the decades we see the changes. Location is only a small factor in clothing. Dress is influenced by culture, interaction, defined norms, the human desire to fit in yet maybe stick out. Clothing may have generational meaning or religious intent. Clothing, like everything, can’t be sited to one precise component.
For things that seem familiar or the same, they’re not. We may think we know ourselves, but do we? If I compared my current likes and dislikes to my preferences and choices from just last year, I would be amazed by the changes. We as people change everyday, whether it's reflected through who we decide to talk to, what we do, what we like, what’s important. As people we may seem like constant creatures but we’re never really the same. Always aging, maturing, reflecting.
Even buildings, familiar locations and landscapes we photograph and immortalize, need updates. Old buildings need refurbishing, walls need repainting.
Nothing will ever again be in the same condition as it is at an exact moment in time. Eleanor Roosevelt understood when she said “Today is the oldest you've ever been, and the youngest you'll ever be again.”
We realize this yet it can be so hard to grasp. As people, we like to familiarize ourselves with things that we think are everlasting.
We should embrace each other and all the unknowns. We should take the time to learn about others, their beliefs and different understandings. In the end, we are all just people.
