Socialising

When Agustun Fuentes remarked that you are who you meet, Gandhi flashed across my mind. If Gandhi had not met the racist conductor who threw him away at the Pietermaritzburg station then Indian if not the world history would have been different because it reinforced his spirit to fight against the evil English empire.

We shape society is a fact we all know but we don’t realize is that society too shapes us. That’s why the old African proverb says that it takes a village to raise a child. All the teachers, friends, peers, co-workers, priests, and everyone in your vicinity make us the person we are. In other words, If we can map out all the people you met since childhood and flip them with someone else then you become a new you.

People say casually that you are the average of five people you surround yourself with. However, the fact is you become the average of all the people you meet from your womb to the tomb. Our perception of ourselves and the world then is a product of all the relationships we had and we will have in the future.