An Unexamined Life

I was at the library earlier tonight. I should probably have been there earlier in the day, but it was a toss up between walking in the blowing snow and cold or taking a well earned afternoon nap. Of course that was a no brainer.

The reason for the trip tonight wasn’t to look for a book (I found a couple), but to pick up the milk which was why I actually needed to go this afternoon. So, at the library tonight, I was looking for a book to read and just letting the universe guide me to the book that I need to read at this point in my life. More often than not, the universe lets me down or steers me to fluff filled time waster books. Maybe that is what I need in my life at this point. Hmmmm…

One book that caught my attention was called “How Your Friends Influence Your Life”. It is kind of an interesting thought, don’t you think? I could have picked it up and read a little about it, but that would probably have changed the way I write the blog tonight. No sense putting facts and deep thought into the blog after all of this time.

I began thinking just how my friends have changed me over the years and realized that this is a much deeper subject than I am ready to tackle without giving it any real thought at all. I can say that the friends I have had over the years and the ones that I have now have been a wonderful and positive influence for the most part. There have been a couple who have let me down and some that surprised me, but all of them have had a hand into the person I am right now. I’m not trying to fix the blame; I take that on all by myself.

One of the things I have been thinking about is that we are different people to the different groups of friends that we have. You have all experienced what a mistake it is to mix friend groups at a party. Mainly because they just won’t mix and there is a good chance that seeing the other friends that you have will make them think twice about keeping you in their circle. I am not sure why this is, but I suspect it’s because we change our personality a little to fit the situation we find ourselves in.

When at work most people try to seem professional and focused so the work friends see that side of your personality. Your social friends see you as a fun loving guy that might do anything for a joke. Still others see you as a caring volunteer for charities. Your mom and dad see you as a twelve year old that had trouble with spelling and keeping his room clean. We are all of these and many more.

The thing I want to think about is wouldn’t it be cool if you could somehow distil from all of this your true personality. I think that as you get older you do tend towards the real you because you just don’t give a damned any more. Maybe it is because you are finally comfortable in your own skin and have somehow “found” the true you in all of those other yous’ that have been around all of your life. I suppose that it’s possible I am the only one that has never really gotten to know himself or that I am and have always been in constant change.

I am going to give this some thought over the next few weeks and hopefully come to some conclusion that I may or may not share. What is it they say? “An unexamined life isn’t worth living.”