What things are different in people who suffer great hardships and abuse, who turn out in the long run to be people of great worth and character and the people who suffer equal amounts of torment or, for that matter, none at all, who eventually become monsters? People are always debating this nature vs. nurture thing, beating it almost to death then turning the hose on it to revive it for yet more abuse.
I don’t think it’s really either of those things.
We learn patterns and from those patterns, form complex matrices that coalesce with matrices that have been created long before us and will survive long after our deaths. A never ending, cyclical process of over and over again. What are we before we learn these patterns? Is this the true source of character? Is it something that somehow exists separate from the cells that trap it within? And is finding this or struggling against it the real challenge of humanity?
I think it is. I think that your character is something that you’re born with. You can learn to be quick to react because those around you were, or perhaps still are, quick to attack. You can learn to place barriers between yourself and others because you know, perhaps in your subconscious, that those others will claw at you as quickly as a jackal left alone with a baby caribou. You can also learn to play nice but have an urge to crack someone’s skull in for no reason whatsoever. Eventually, with the right twists of fate, or perhaps without them, your true character pulls you out of your niche, especially when that niche has been imposed upon you by others. Now, if you look at molecular biology, you'll know that we all contain programming that tells our brains and bodies what to do and when to do it. However, there are people who are programmed to become addicts, yet some people have the ability to fight addiction through sheer force of will. Ask yourself why.
Wesley Willis. Struggling with schizophrenia, perhaps the most terrifying and misunderstood mental illness of all, died from leukemia at age 40.
I’m severely bummed about this. I liked him because he was such a fighter. He had that instinct that all great people have of taking a problem and finding a solution within his own program. He had fortitude and spirit. He wasn’t mean. He was a scrapper. I liked him. He wrote a song about Alanis Morrisette. I would really, really like it if some day, she covered it. Especially the part about her whupping a horse's butt wid a belt. He also wrote a song called, "Casper, the Homosexual Friendly Ghost". Having seen Casper the ghost, I ask you, how can someone that perceptive be all that crazy?
Bummed as I am, I like to think of Wesley going out right now. Lover Mars (Yes he's a lover! He's got a big axe and he's pissed off all of the time! Who wouldn't want to be in the sack with a guy like that?? You can keep Venus. I like my men sweaty and axe wielding, though a chainsaw will do in a pinch)so close his breath is fogging the glasses of all Scorpios, ushers him out of the Matrix while Pluto (the co-ruler of Scorpio, he's the one that gives us an edge) follows behind, scooping up the dead and taking them to the potato cellar. Since it's so close to Winter, Persephone will be kickin' it Hades style. And a good thing, that. Wesley loves the ladies.
Read about Wesley
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Schizophelia Jones
