What We Have Become

 

Ever think about why you are the way

you are? I suppose mostly because we

were formed a certain way genetically.

Then there has been our development

through family and society. Experiences

on our own weigh heavily on our indi-

vidually formed personality.

One day in a lifelong chain of exposure

to and the processing of factors, fortu-

nately or not, we become the person

we were meant to be.

I can make claims, give credit or lay

blame as to the reason I became who

I am because…

I for one was told and exposed to “this”

and never told or experienced “that.”

I expect that is why I turned out the

way I did.

I figure mom and dad did the best

they knew how in raising my brothers

and me, yet we three turned out so

differently.

Then someone comes along and says

things like, “clothes make the man, and

you are what you eat.” Should these

tendencies be true, I have preferred

the casual wearing of blue jeans and

sweats to the formality of a tie, white

shirt and suit.

Bologna, which I brown-bagged most

every day to school growing up is more

a fitting meal for me than steak and lobster

could ever be.

And the advise I recall my father giving to

me as a child which has profoundly in-

fluenced me throughout the years is,

“I’ll be damned if I know, son. You’re

on your own.”

              -30-

Chris Hanch 8-2-2021