Perception

Perception Our own Personal Perception change as we age, just as social norms, fashions, entertainment and more change. When we are tiny, we helplessly wait for others to care for us. Then as we hit the terrible 2s and 3s, we seek to find our boundaries, knowing we can safely run back to Mommy’s arms, 2 minutes after we pushed her away saying we could do it ourselves. Our initial perceptions of the world around us are shaped by the beliefs of the people around us we trust to take care of us, often following their footsteps and mimicking their actions and words. As teens, we struggle again to form our own identity, separate from our mentors – sometimes following the lead of other teens, older siblings or famous people we try to emulate. For many of us, that results in developing new perceptions of the world around us to take with us as we leave home, yet often keeping the basic beliefs of our parents as a touchstone to lead us home. Mark Twain said it best with: “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” Like most, we make mistakes in the process, learning not to “touch the hot stove” in the process. Sometimes however, it can take years, or even generations between something that is done and our perception of that act telling us it was wrong, other times, we may “know” something is wrong as individuals, yet the society around us condones and encourages the behavior, so we adapt our perception to the societal norm. How far back does slavery go? It’s spoken of in the Old Testament as a common occurrence. Wars were waged and the conquerors got the “spoils” of the war which typically included raping the women and enslaving the population; unless the order was genocide when entire cities to include all the animals were destroyed. The gold and jewels? At times used as plunder for the church or the ruling body, at other times, enriching the soldiers who found it. In America, our economy has changed and perceptions have evolved as well. I URGE all of you to read the book “The Soul of America: the Battle for Our Better Angels” by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Jon Meacham. It goes through America’s past (from colonial days to the present) showing how perceptions, social norms and freedoms have changed over the years, only to be repeated later. It lays out in clear, well researched terms (references are noted at the back of the book), how we have divided ourselves over race, immigrants and those “not like us” based on fear over and over again. The book was number one on The New York Times’ list of best selling nonfiction books in 2018 and was named one of the best books of the year by NPR. It covers American politics, social norms, economics, philosophy, immigration policies, the rights of ALL of America citizens and more. And it covers critical times when HOPE overcame the division and fear that had overwhelmed our society.