All Around the world there is how we want to see ourselves and how we actually are

 People either survive everything in life or they don't.

Yes. This is pretty obvious isn't it?

So, there is how we like to see ourselves and then how we really are.

For myself, I have come to terms with the fact that my father's line are a long line of Survivors.

What does this mean?

Well. Imagine all the things that happened to my family going back to 1725 when they first came to the U.S. to Philadelphia from Switzerland.

6 brothers came from near Zurich, Switzerland through London and a ship over to the U.S. and up the river to Philadelphia in a large sailing ship around 1725.

However, realistically, my family were always survivors because people who came to America who couldn't survive here (for one reason or another) didn't survive.

So, unless you are extremely practical from 1725 to the present you didn't survive it.

So, studying Anthropology this helped me a lot to get beyond "How we as humans want to see ourselves"

And to get to who we really are.

Who we really are is that "WE either do WHATEVER it takes to survive or we don't."

And this often isn't nice to observe for anyone.

and then can you live with what you have done afterwards?

And so in my 20s I dealt with all this and realized. "I have to live with myself no matter what I do."

This is a powerful realization.

Because:

If you do something you cannot live with then you won't" (You won't live).

So, in life; "What can you live with?"

In studying Anthropology I began to see what people are really like beyond the fairy tales they tell each other of who and what they are.

Once you can ferret out the lies people tell themselves then you can get more realistic about who you are and what you are prepared to do to survive in this lifetime. 

What I came up with that works for me is this:

BE AS KIND AS YOU CAN TO EVERYONE IN LIFE AND STILL SURVIVE

Because if you don't survive you are dead and are of no use to anyone dead.

But, if you don't survive you cannot help anyone including your kids and parents and friends or yourself.

However, like I said I come from a long line of survivors here in the U.S.

So, I am a part of what it takes to survive anything in life.

What helped me next?

"Work smarter not harder"

I watched people dying every age in the 1950s from children to adults and I thought to myself:

"Why are all these people dying so young?"

The realization I came up with is that: "These people (young and old) are mostly dying from ignorance."

I remember walking home with a boy and I was a head taller than him. And he told me that his mother had many men coming to their house and he didn't have enough food to eat.

And because I was only 8 years old I told him that I had my own bicycle and that my father and mother owned a car (a 1941 Century Buick that had been my father's younger brother's car during world war II).

I told the boy I had enough food to eat and he started hitting me.

But, I was bigger and stronger and he was sitting on my chest trying to hit me because he was angry I had a good life.

Right then my father drove up in his 1941 Buick and the boy ran away crying.

My father asked me why I wasn't hitting the boy back?

I said, "HE is suffering Dad. I didn't want to hurt him so I only blocked his blows."

My father realized that I was a good person right then and that I cared about people. Since he was an electrician and Mystical Christian Minister he realized I was a good person even though I was only 8 years old and that I was already becoming wise like him.

We became much closer as father and son after this because I had earned his respect as a human being.

The point is: "We have to live with everything we do in life and if we can't live with what we do, we die."

People did all sorts of awful things to people in the past and some are still doing bad things now. But, if you have a conscience and are not just an animal then you won't be able to live with yourself if you hurt people.

So, in Anthropology my question always is: "Are these humans I'm studying animals or human beings with a conscience?".

And depending upon the situation there might be different answers to this question.

So, the question becomes: "Are you an animal or a human being?"

An animal might survive doing really bad things but  a human being with a conscience won't.

And understanding this about all of us allows us to make the decisions that keep ourselves and others alive long term.

Because in the end if you cannot live with what you do in life then you don't. In other words if you can't live with what you've done, you die (either mentally or physically). 

This is just life.

Understanding this will keep you alive a long time and sane too.

by God's Grace