Musings
From The Heart
An
Essay A Day For A Year
By
Roe
Day
142 May 21, 2012
Our
Changing Biases
It’s funny how we can be so
biased about things. “I hate chocolate!” “Such and such sport is no fun!” Then something happens to change our original
bias, and surprisingly, and sometimes embarrassingly, we change. “I thought you hated chocolate!” “See, I knew you’d like such and such sport
if you tried it!” What are biases
anyway, and why are we so passionate about them? And if we are so resolutely biased about what
we do and don’t like and why, how could we possibly change? Why and how do our biases change?
We are like steam
locomotives, and the tracks we follow were laid by our parents and environment as
we grew up. We are the locomotive called “nature”, our personality and distinct
and unique selves are all pre made, just like the locomotive in the locomotive
works. When we leave the shop all brand new, when we pop out of our mommies, we
are a distinct person, and we already know exactly what we want and what we
will do and why, despite the fact that we are baby locomotives and yet to chug
on out into life. Our mommies and daddies
and the life we live, and where and when and how we live, are our railroad
tracks, they are our “nurtures”, and despite being special machines designed
and built our own perfect way, we end up having to follow the tracks that Life
laid for us. Our personal biases are our own unique combination and compromise
of how we as locomotives run down our tracks. We are nature-nurture, and our
biases are the results of “us” as applied to the life that we have lived and
are living.
One may think that they
don’t like broccoli, and in fact after a life of trying broccoli at many
different times and places with many different recipes, we still don’t like
broccoli. Yuck to broccoli! In this case the nature of our true selves and how
our life played out regarding broccoli ends up as a lifelong and resolute,
unchanging bias. Still yuck to broccoli!
But broccoli is innocent, and we may also in fact be innocent of our own
bias against broccoli. When we were
growing up we hated broccoli and we hated being forced to eat anything green by
our parents. But when we grew up we realized that when no one was watching, and
when broccoli was still crispy and not mushy, and sautéed with a bit of herbs,
broccoli was in fact quite tasty. How interesting that if we throw the switch
on the tracks and try a new railroad spur,
of simply having matured, or remaining open minded, or letting the
trauma of our parents go, or a different method or flavor of broccoli, our bias
in fact changes.
A bias is a mathematical
heart-mind-self formula from deep within our genetics and then how our
spiritual and emotional and biological self is affected by our life
circumstances. One plus three minus 2 divided by ½, over 2, is still two. If
you are biased against math you may think that this is a bad analogy, but in
fact if you are biased against math the analogy works even better. A shy,
introverted, loving child, born to a plantation owner in 1820’s southern
America is biased against black people, but at heart still a shy, introverted,
loving person. You may have been born to be a mathematician, yet the above
simple math line causes you to be uneasy.
Racism is bias, sexism is
bias, and basically any ism or ology is a bias, and these are false tracks that
we sadly follow, when we as people are and can be only loving. Everything we say and do and feel is a bias.
We lean towards one bias or the other bias, and we feel sure of ourselves,
based on our biases. Our biases are our selves in expression, based on who we
are, how we feel, and what we believe, and this all depends on our exposure and
experience, and our life situation vis a vis the idea or belief or act in
question. We change our biases based on
our exposures and experiences and situations, and though we may be lead astray
for a time, we tend to gravitate and evolve towards true core self, towards our
original locomotive works of how we were truly built. Liking chocolate or not
may be simply be time and place, it may be variety or environment, or it may be
truly us. Liking a sport or not may be
our lifelong calling and most natural expression, or it may be simply and
emotional or mental railroad track imposed or catalyzed by others. How can we truly know what is “us” as a
locomotive, and what is simply the “tracks” that we are compelled to be?
Our human hearts contain our
true emotional codification of who we are, and our experiential memory banks
alter and adapt and compromise our true “us” depending on what happened to us
and the influences upon us. As we grow
up and grow old we all tend to search for own selves and our own meanings, our
true interests and hobbies and motivations, our true joys and inspirations. When we evolve and change our biases we are
evolving, and we are changing, and evolution and change is the impetus of Life
and humanity. We are Love and we are
Life, and Love and Life are existent, universal back drops to judgment and valuation, and
decision. Having a bias is part of
intelligence, of discerning and measuring and leaning towards a stance, and
this is the inheritance of consciousness and self awareness. Having an open mind, and the process of
change and flux is also part of consciousness and self awareness, and so not
only is having a passionate bias a natural state of advanced consciousness and
self awareness, but changing ones bias is the final demonstration of advanced
consciousness and self awareness, and of human evolution.
It is said that we are
simply human, with all of our frailties and miracles. The beauty of our lives
is that our biases, and our changing of our biases, are our never ending search
for self, and our never ending search for self requires constant reassessment
and growth. The irony of our biases and then our change of these biases exposes
our ironic selves, which are simply human, and in this simple humanity we are
by no means simple at all. Like Love and
Life, we are moving forward, and when we move forward we are always searching
for ourselves backwards. We are who we are, and we are what happened to us, and
it takes having biases, and then changing our biases, it takes challenging our
own tracks, to be the true locomotives that we are. Finding our real truths
requires that we take a stance, have a bias, and then in time challenge and
reassess these biases to renew our selves and our lives. The changing of biases
is self discovery and self renovovation and self realization. Any process that honors and values the
evolution of self, including and especially the evolution of any bias,
contributes to the evolution of all Life.
Let us all hope and wish for biases that evolve towards Peace and Love.
See you tomorrow.
yourpersonalmuse@gmx.com
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