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‘YOU' ARE NOT WHO ‘THEY' THINK YOU AREBy Richard Hannibal
People keep asking me my age. Could it be my white hair and mustache? Maybe they think I'm the oldest cop in the world. I usually answer with the words I heard long ago, "How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?" Casting aside chronological age, how old do you "‘think" and "feel"? There are tribes in this world that don't keep track of time. From what scientists can tell, the people are long-lived. Is it the diet, environment, or simply the fact that there are no societal expectations of what a person should be at a certain age? Regarding my age; it is not an ego thing. I have always resisted being put into a box, whether it is about age, gender, religion or politics. Our society likes to do that and it has an affect on one's goals and message. "He's 60 years old, why doesn't he act his age?" "He's a democrat, why does he support the right to own a gun?" "He says he believes in God, but he doesn't go to church. How could that be?" I am none of these things and all of these things. I am a left-wing, right-wing, moderate, Christian, Jew, Buddhist, mystic, or atheist depending on the issue. I'm sometimes 60 years old, sometimes 85 and sometimes 9. I'm not white, black, brown or Asian; I am all of these and I'm not concerned with a person's color, age or what they think; but simply that they think. I try to keep the words "I believe" out of my vocabulary, because I am old enough to know that what I believe today may not be what I believe tomorrow. Allowing folks to put you in a ‘box' and maintaining a rigid belief system merely shuts you down to intellectual and spiritual evolution. Focusing on "boxes," such as chronological years, is pandering to our society, which must put everything in a box. Close it up and tie it with a neat ribbon. Resist dear ones! Do what your heart tells you to do and not what the label on some box says. |
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