Affected thought

It is within out ability to make the world a better place. It is within our power to alter the status quo. It is within out ability to create an alternate view of reality. It is within our ability to dispel the confusion. It is within us.

The world is an enormous place and these days we tend to think on global terms and allow the larger issues over which we have no immediate control to consume our thoughts while those issues over which we have definite control are minimized in importance. While wandering through the 360 network of Yahoo, I saw a quote regarding it taking a village to raise a child and it made me stop and think. (this is no reflection on the person's own thought, just where the quote took me) Perhaps it doesn't take a village to raise a child, but that village does impact the raising of a child and how he will go forth into the world. I thought to myself, how very important it is in which village we choose to reside or how we let the village influence us. For most of us, we ourselves are born into a place and, unless our families opt otherwise, we will grow there and sometimes die there. From the small isolated tribes in the world to the largest metropolitan areas, what we are exposed to has the ability to influence the persons we become unless we limit our exposure to it or determine who we want to be and refuse to allow the influences to affect us. Unfortunately, most people are not so intimate with themselves that they really know who they want to be until they've gone through the trial and error called life.

I have been raised in a small, rural southern United States town located in the Bible belt emerging still from a history of State secession and racial inequality. I have raised children here and they and I may or may not die here. That remains to be seen. However, it has crossed my mind more so in the last year than at any other time how they or I might be any different from who we are had we been born elsewhere. It is those who sire and raise us who are our first line of defense against the world and we as children accept their ways as our own. We either retain these ways or over time we find something better suited to what we need for ourselves and discard that which we find encumbering or distasteful. After this first line, comes the extended family and immediate neighbors who will assist in shaping our thoughts and expectations of the world. Following that will be the village with all it's schools, laws, and culture (or lack of). Regardless of its inclusion into a larger county, country or global community, this is a world unto itself where little changes until you cross it's defined borders. Once you've done so, the opportunity to be exposed to something different awaits you. Without having the desire to look beyond what is familiar, you limit yourself to the person shaped by those immediate to you. Regardless of the size of your village, you might as well be raised in one of the remaining isolated communities which still exist within the world and whose inhabitants have moved no closer into the 21st century than the generations before them. They know nothing beyond what they are familiar and are content because of this. Few of us are isolated to that extent and thanks to television, books, etc., we have a window into the larger community and yet for many the opinions and feelings regarding issues seldom vary from what was encouraged by those within their immediate area. We are not immune to the influences, but it is within us to decide our own way.

The global situation involves us all regardless of our location. Regardless of the size of the world we inhabit or the place we call our own, it is made up of individuals. Change will not occur overall until we take it back into the areas where we have a chance of affecting that change. Beyond the world, beyond the country, beyond the village, and even beyond the family, we must take it back to where it begins...within ourselves. When it comes down to it, the only thing we're in control of is ourselves and we must desire a better way and let it begin with us. If peace is desired, then a peaceful way must be our own. Can one person make a difference? Each person you come across has a chance of influencing your thoughts and feelings, why not you them? One altered thought or action within your own control, affects not only your life but those connected to it. This in turn has the opportunity of changing their lives, and so forth. It is called the "ripple affect" but someone must cause the ripple to begin.