Filters...

I sometimes think quite a bit about the life of which I lead. A little bit about the history, but more often than not the why behind the reasons of it all. Reasons such as what drives the neighborhood/homes that we choose to live in, the types of cars we choose to drive, the restaurants we choose to eat at, the friends we choose to keep.

I have theorized the multitude of "filters" of which we all have accumulated in our lives that take in information, help us process it into bits of understandable portions and then allows us to work with them. These filters are a complex system of finding perception through the reality of a situation.

Some filters are readily apparent and are in our top reason for why we choose to accept things or disregard them. Religious views, ideals/standards handed to us by our parents, regionally accepted practices from the communities we live in or even national standards of that shape each decision that comes across our senses.

Some filters are much more discrete and function "behind the scenes". These are filters that allow further processing from the macro level and subtly shape the reality of any situation. These types of filters can be from your own personality type - whether you're an outgoing person or one that enjoys a smaller group. Or they can be micro views on subjects which allow for everyone to find themselves on a different point on the diversity scale. This infinite splitting of viewpoints shaped by these filters is what is really behind the difference between us all.

These filters all work together - somewhat seamlessly - as we deal with the world around us. They allow for us to then make judgement calls on those things that we include in our lives. Even to how large that circle of inclusion really is. They also allow for us to search for others who are like us. In that we find comfort in being around people who truly match up to most of our own filters and for that very reason why we are most uncomfortable around those who do not share this relatively same perspective packaging.

I think about my own filters. Those of which are truly ingrained in my psyche and those of which as I look at my own viewpoints can be altered or discarded due to poor reasoning. They are the filers that allow me to find comfort in a large room of people who are not interacting with me (such as now, sitting in a coffee shop, typing this blog entry, listening to my iPod and watching random strangers interact in their own small groups).

They are the makeup of my own version of this reality. The actual scribes of the oral and written history of me. All of these filters have shaped who I am.

And when I think of the "stuff" I have, and when I really think of the actual connection with them - such as the car I drive or the home I live in. I find myself really not caring too much since they are inanimate objects that give nothing in return. People can claim that they love their car for example, but it's not a mutual relationship - we all know that a car cannot love in return - but what the person is truly saying is that they love their car because in their perspective, their car brings joy from either the sensation of driving it (hedonistic view) or from the perceived perception of others who infer certain "successes" onto the owner (self-esteem view). Sometimes a combination of the two.

Our culture has even derived sayings such as "clothes make the man". Clothes did no such thing in their own right - but as that individuals filters worked through that situation, their self-esteem could be altered and ego satisfied by wearing such an outfit. Their clothes had nothing to do with their upbringing, their education or their individual talents.

So it makes me think - why do we work such terrible jobs with people we don't really like doing things that we're typically not proud of to accumulate physical manifestations of "things" that, in their own purpose, bring no joy? And, at that same time, spending our precious time in the pursuit of such things that we neglect the very things that do truly bring us joy? Relationships that bring back - especially those that are founded under unconditional love?

I know that our soul's require this. Think of every tear-jerker movie that moved you to sob because of the beauty of the relationship conveyed? I have personally watched the Shawshank Redemption some 100 times and the very end, when Morgan Freeman "Red" skips his bail and goes south to meet up with Tim Robbins "Andy" on the beach. How the camera is moving far away and you don't get to hear what they say to one another, but in that hug each other in a moment of purity. My eyes well up and my heart aches for such joy every single time I have watched it.

Or that if all things were lost in my life - those that would truly crush me would be the loss of my wife and children. And how the fear of that loss can bring such quick nightmares of being left alone to grieve the exceptional and devastating loss of potential. A loss that would be haunting for all of time.

Would you trade all material possessions away for the pursuit of a relationship(s)? Would you be willing to trade away all things that surround you in false idolatry of addresses and transportation to bathe in that purity of relationship?

To give of yourself to those around you - to create a circle of investment of the very best kind - to have that relationship with your spouse, your children, your parents, your friends (near and dear and those yet to be labeled as such). To pursue a career that allows for this very thing to be fostered in which a person could actually leave a legacy of love and charity of spirit instead of one that only takes from one another?

I can tell you that I am.