TUESDAY, 1 FEBRUARY 2005
Sexual orientation is an excellent illustration of something you have been given, and then self-observation, observation of the views and so-called values of the community (regarding what you are observing in yourself), and self-definition – that goes along with self-acceptance, with the definition part that is almost a formality (perhaps labelling would be a more accurate term in this case), or … acceptance, and appropriate self-definition …
WEDNESDAY, 2 FEBRUARY 2005
I just watched the movie “187” again. Two comments …
Firstly, gang culture is built on two principles – respect and fear. The teacher (Samuel L. Jackson) shows the gang leader at the end of the movie that he (the teacher) does not respect him (the gang leader), that he does not fear him, and that he is willing to pay the price for disrespect, namely death.
Note two: The social misery, and the culture in which many inner-city youths grow up, confirms the value of leaving the area that was given to you if it is not conducive to a good life.
“Not everyone can leave,” you might say.
“What is the alternative?” will be my answer.
Plus, I am not necessarily talking about staying away forever. I am talking about removing yourself possibly only temporarily from the environment that has arrested your growth and development, confronting your given self, finding your “core self”, defining a self with a vision in which you can believe, and starting the process of becoming this person. Then, with the passing of time, you can always return to be what you have become, in the place where you originally came from.
FRIDAY, 4 FEBRUARY 2005
The book People in Context has the following to say about self-discovery and acceptance: “[You can] can extend an authentic and warm invitation to authenticity and warmth in another person in a companionship that creates a safe, non-threatening space for the fearless discovery of who I am and who you are …”*
[Almost as if the cosmos is saying to me, “You think of yourself and your life in a certain way, and now you have the opportunity to be with someone. Here is the bridge to that life.”]
* My own translation from the Afrikaans text
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