We humans, around the world, are born into families that run the gamut from, love your enemies, to kill them. It is actually true however, that “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Those words can be found in the Bible’s book of Proverbs, 23:7, and for better or worse are true. To change your life, you must change your thinking. We are doomed, or blessed, to be what we think. As Brian Tracy says in his book Change Your Thinking Change Your Life, “You are not what you think you are, but what you think, you are.” That’s a thought.

We are born into different families around the globe, who see life in many different ways. To me, humans are born with similar potentials of brain activity. This is true of animal life, and I think it is true also of people. The greatest difference in humans, is the way we are taught in different societies, and because of their flexibility, our brains can vary greatly. All animals are pretty much the same within their own breed. I believe that humans are also pretty much the same. The difference with humans is that while we all have a greater potential, we are not all taught to use it in the same way, and many are more misled than taught.

Because so many of us have been raised under a great variety of circumstances, we also have a tendency to treat our children as the best we know, and that covers a lot of ground. Consequently we are left with the reality of how you think in your heart, so you are, and so you believe everything is. What it all comes down to is that everyone learns from their parents, and environment, but mostly, their own observations with peers.

This is so important however, that it includes the complete circumstances of ones life. Whether you wish to study and learn, or whether you think you know enough already. Whether you think your compatriots are understanding, or that they are just a bunch of idiots who don’t really know what life’s opportunities are. It leaves many of us in a quandary of how to treat the rest of the world, if they do not perceive it as we do.

Over the years, we have seen what we call genius, people like Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, etc. I do not believe for one second that they were men of intellect beyond the understanding of any of us in the so called huddled masses. They had the brain of a man, much he same as any man. The difference is in the way they were brought up.

They did not sacrifice their life to study. They did what they were drawn to do. They were their own man, as we all are, whether we realize it or not. The great differences we see in various examples of humanity are not variations in their intellect, nearly so much as the way in which they were taught to perceive the world and its secrets.

A dog can be trained, but in doing so we must adhere to consistency in the training. We send our offspring to school and leave it at that. My schooling taught me that there is a great difference in teachers and their ability. Teaching children is a science in its infancy. We seem to feel that as long as they are learning to read and write we have done what we could to do them justice.

When the day comes that we learn just how to teach our children what it means to be a realistically functioning human, we shall save the world for eternity.

We shall then realize that the world has been created to become, not our battleground, but rather our training ground for humanity, and their understanding of reality. May God bless America.

Richard Westlund is a Collins resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com