Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be. Applies to people just the same. That is to say, people will be what they “be”! As human beings, we are. That’s it! Trees create oxygen, worms care for the soil, corns corn and we, humans, we “be”. That being is open-ended. There is no fixed course as we see in the rest of life. We get to choose. This is the beauty, the privilege of humanity – we get to choose our response.
Meet 84 year old Gracious Granny who only recently started to realize she’s been dragged into the subtle mind-trap of letting external circumstances dictate her happiness. Her relationship with her grandchild has turned sour over a recent tiff and she’s waiting for the child to come back and make amends. While waiting, she lives a daily existence in extreme sadness over the erosion of a relationship that means so much. Sitting next to her is 6 year old Bobby Friendly who bitterly cries when a 5 year old neighbor sent him back saying he can’t play nerf wars. Both Gracious and Bobby are presented with a situation, one that’s out of their control and they have to choose how to be. They cannot control how others act or treat them. Rather, what they do is completely under their control. Both chose to react instead of respond. A response is an intentional “conscious” choice whereas a reaction is a habit (or some bit of pre-programming) playing out “unconsciously”.