The difference between you and I-

The difference between you and I is everything,

And nothing.

We’re both human, I don’t recall making that choice.

Our differences or our similarities in our skin color is irrelevant because neither of us had a choice in this matter.

            The same is true with the difference in our facial features, hair, teeth, height, athletic ability, artistic expression, and intelligence.

Our speech patterns may be more genetically induced,

while our accents are a product of our environment. Neither of which was of our choice.

Our differences or our similarities in our spoken language is irrelevant because neither of us had a choice in our native language.

googleimages/differences 

Our taste in clothing is based largely in the environments we grew up in, and neither of us had a choice in that either.

            Growing up in poverty or wealth, attending public or private school, not a choice of ours.

Our choices regarding religion and/or faith are largely taught to us when we are young. Almost all of them (religious institutions) allow us to make a choice later in life on how or if we wish to follow in that faith.

            The difference between you and I is how we choose to live our lives. The difference is what we learn from our life’s lessons and how we choose to apply them. Whether it is be productive, destructive - loving, apathetic – positive, negative - isolated or engaged, these are our choices, and this is the difference between you and me. I understand we will never be “the same”. In fact I hope we never are! I do hope that in our own ways we can be on the “good” side of “different”, for different is what makes life exciting. And “good” is what makes life worth living.

I hope to meet your different on the good side of life. Until then, may all good and different blessings be with you.

by David E. Gonzales

To profane or… (non-religious)

           I have decided to dedicate myself to creating environmentally safe eye and ear zones. Yes, that means actually taking the time to properly articulate an idea or emotion instead of resorting to the use of “shock” terminology. Mind you I have no intention of trying to change the world into following me on my path to spiritual constancy. Only that I am on a personal mission to be a better me. I realize that it is simply easier to use profanity to express oneself than to stop and think through an idea or emotion. For me, this will include not using punctuation in place of foul language or a combination of letters and punctuation to press forward the idea of words that are less than socially proper.

I don’t believe this will be that difficult to accomplish since my propensity to use this type of language is minimal. However, I have been known to allow an occasional word of this nature to land on the ears of an un-expecting soul. It is this that I wish to eliminate from my personal inconsistencies. I do expect that the elimination of soft profanity will be a slightly more difficult to achieve. While some words are not necessarily considered profane, they do lead one to consider them in terms that are coarser than the word itself denotes. Of course this would depend on the context that the word is used.

So while I ask that others respect my desire to keep clear my eyes and ears of less than well articulated speech, I will continue to respect your freedom of speech as long as it is not a deliberate attempt to offend me. Of course, you are welcome to join me in my quest for spiritual constancy.

May peace be with you, along with your ears and eyes.

by David E.Gonzales