People

Wow. Chewy was an excellent speaker who is very entertaining and insightful. I totally enjoyed his presentation. So Thanks Prof Ben for getting him around.

The premise behind Chewy’s presentation last night was about people – people other than ourselves. What Chewy says is very poignant (and definitely very befitting of me) that we have constructed the “our reality” based on our experiences and because the human experience is so vast and myriad, we have often made wrong implicit assumptions about people – their beliefs, their behavior, their likes and dislikes.

Understandably, a few things ties us together. We have principles like honest, courage and love which are quite universally similar in essence; we have context like examinations, war or competition that we have grown to understand; we have cultures and languages which allows us to identify with each other; and we have physics and the human condition, which are both and almost always an empirical awareness that we develop as a living human. However, even with these basic identities and commonality, we are muchly different from one another because we have different taste and styles. Because we have different pursuits and problems. Because we have different beliefs and experiences.

And to appreciate and empathize takes more than just words or ears. It involves taking off the shoes of our experience and standing in theirs, something remarkably hard to do (at least for myself) because one so attached to our own experiences, ideas and modulus operandi. Indeed, our lives and actions are the embodiment of our beliefs. And that is not to say that understanding people is not possible. It takes genuine willingness to explore the Life of others, and the humility to put principles and people in front of self. (It sucks to hear two egos or two masks speaking to one another; or me trying to figure out you out based on my Life)

Together with chewy, I too believe in stories. They help me understand others. I am pushing myself to love people for who they are and to love freely, not to expect love in return, but because love inspires.

“I want to celebrate Life as I live. This is my story. What’s yours?”