coming and going

 Yesterday while writing my daily blog I thought that it doesn't matter where you are going but it always matters where you came from. That is a question that is always asked of you whenever you go someplace new. If you are someplace where others don't know you they will ask, where did you come from? During my time in the service that was usually one of the first. An immediate judgement was made dependent upon that answer. If I said, New York, the assumption was New York City, but if I said East Hampton, I would be asked, where is that? On Long Island. Where is that? And the questioning would continue and after explaining all of that the thought in others minds was, New York city. 

  The question where did you come from is a lot deeper than a location. We are the product of our environments, no doubt about that. The circumstances of your birth and the manner in which you where raised play the most significant role in determining where you came from. Yes, no matter where you came from there are always two sides to the track. Sometimes both tracks run through the same household! I believe that somewhere along the way you make that choice, which track to follow. What values do you most admire in a person? It is that which will determine that course. In the course of our life however those values may change as we grow and learn. But I do believe we return to those early values and so the real change is a return. We begin to see things for more than what appears on face value. 

  We all make judgements and assumptions based on where a person is from. We make judgements based on social class as well. We are constantly judging others, that's what we do. I'm always amused by those saying, don't judge. What they mean to say is don't condemn. They seem to forget that a judge can render a favorable verdict as readily as a unfavorable one. In fact that happens in nearly every case. Just depends on which side of the question you stand. The reality in this world is that you do have to judge, render a decision in the end. The world is a binary place, like it or not. It is the place I came from. I live in a binary world still. Now it's true that I may not agree with your decisions. It is also true that I most likely will not change my decision based on yours. I have passed judgement. It takes a great deal to overturn a judgement. We even admire that quality, calling it conviction.

  It's part of the language now, we hear it all the time. Where are you coming from? Know where I'm coming from? It's an idiom I associate with the 1960's and the hippie scene. I was around back then but I didn't go there. I was never much on fad or fashion and so didn't adopt much of that happening. Guess you could say I just wasn't hip, cool or with it. I thought where you were coming from was just stupid. Yeah, it was fashionable, the in thing, but it wasn't necessarily a good thing. It was called the "counter culture" for a reason. It did run counter to the culture I came from. I admit I did venture into that culture just a bit in my younger days but discovered what I already knew, it's not for me. Turns out I am a bit of a traditionalist. At least that is what they call where I'm coming from these days, when someone wants to be kind. 

  It's an amazing thing really, how we can all come from the same place and be so different from one another. It really does all depend on where you have been. We are asked a great deal where do you want to go? We are told to establish goals and work towards those goals. To get where we want to go. Where do you want to go? The answer may vary but I think it almost always winds up being, where I have been. It's the place we call home. Home isn't a location, a place on the map, home is, as that old idiom states, where the heart is. It's a place in our minds, a subconscious place, the place we always retreat too in times of trouble or stress. Do you retreat to surrender, or to regather your forces? That is the place you come from. Know your place and you will know happiness. Shakespeare was correct when he pointed out, each of us play a part. When you enter the stage where do you come from? For you readers old enough to remember Snagglepuss, he always said, "exit stage left." And you know what, we all will one day.