midnight in the garden

I have a theory about people. Some people believe that we change with time and we get stronger, we get weaker. We get better and we get worse. Some even believe that we can reform, or conversely, backslide into the dark abyss.

I believe that a person never changes. The core of a person remains though the manifestation of that core may differ. Whether we're innately good or evil- or both in some sort of strange concoction- its all there. Its a constant. We may find ways to hide, or to modify the expression of who we are; we learn to behave better, to mask the lies better, to play the game better, to master and execute the shennigans of the todays and tomorrows. We simply learn to paint a better mask to hide the truth beneath.

Some people view life as a do-or-die competition, a zero-sum game. And they will always see life that way. They will make up stories, assumptions and theories about this and that to fit into that paradigm. But over time, as complacency sets in or maybe when things come to a crunch the inner core will surface and be manifested. They pull stunts to take the credit where its not due, bully the weak because they think they can win, sabotage the very hands that plough the fields that feed them.

But everything in life comes a full circle. Everything in in its place, in its time. How you think reveals and perceive tells about the you inside. The core that never changes. How you behave is a reflection of who that person inside truly stands for. Doing "good" means nothing if the intention's wry. Saving the world for your own skin is theatrical heroics with a bad review.

In the garden of good and evil, the scales for each of us have already been weighed out. How do you measure up? Are the scales tipped to one side? Or dead-weight centered? I sleep well at night. Do you?