When you’re a little kid, you don’t see color, and the fact that my friends were black never crossed my mind. – Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem
Do you see a bunch of friendly kids, or do you see a bunch of different skin colors?
What does that mean?
This quote is about the innocence of a child. They see friend as a person, not as a member of this race or that race. It is about the age when a person is a person, and the kids don’t care what your skin color is, only if you play fair, and give your best at play, when working on a back yard project, or playing in a band.
It is a reminder to us, the so-called adults of the planet, that like beauty, race is only skin deep. Yes, we have our differences, and there are characteristics that define our biological origins. But when we put that aside and look at each other as fellow human beings, the differences all but disappear.
This quote is also a reminder that we have far more in common than we have that is different. It reminds us that we will find what we look for, and if we look for what is different, we will find differences. If we look for what is the same, we will find many times more similarities.
Why is what we focus on important?
Some people focus on differences. Others focus on their failures. There are some who focus on both, and blame the latter on the former. When the difference is skin color, or racial/ethnic background, things will not go well, will it?
When we focus on what is good in the world, when we focus on what we have in common, then things get better. If we ignore all these these great things, and focus on what is not going well in the world (or our lives), and focus on our differences instead of our similarities, we invite misery and anger to live with us.
We tend to find what we focus on. What we focus on will amplify our experiences. A minor setback can become a shattering defeat, if we focus on it too much. If we focus on the negative, we find negative, often in abundance. That doesn’t sound like much fun to me.
Instead, if we focus on the good things, the empowering things, the things that unite us, and the things that we can learn from unfortunate experiences, we get a rich and vibrant life. I know what I’m going to try to do, how about you?
Where can I apply this in my life?
What are you going to focus on in life? You probably know a sour-puss, one who always focuses on what has gone wrong, what is going wrong, and what is likely to go wrong in both the immediate and distant futures. They’re a lot of fun at parties, right? No, not really.
The thing I do to help stay focused on the things I believe to be important is to focus on the present. Yes, I still try to learn from the past, and plan for the future, but I try not to dwell there. I try not to obsess over something that happened, or might happen. I work on what I can do right now.
I try to remember to focus on the good things in life. Music I enjoy, the good parts of my day at work. I focus on the things that bring joy, not the things that bring sorrow. I try to find the good in each situation, the silver lining of each dark cloud.
For those things that don’t go as well as I would have liked, I try not to focus on what could have been if only… Instead, I try to focus on learning the lessons that are present in the result. I try to focus on how to do it better next time, not on what the result cost me.
For the times when I have to deal with other people, I try to focus on the things that bring us together and move us forward, instead of what annoys me or drives me crazy. I try to focus on the good aspects of the individual and to find three things to compliment them on before I find fault with something they have done (or failed to do).
If you don’t focus on what is different, we can more easily get along. Something as simple as skin color is a convenient way of identifying someone as being different. OK, so they’re different. We’re all different in our own ways. The question is what will you focus on?
Will you focus on the differences, and drive humanity apart, or will you focus on what unites and binds us together, and bring the world closer together? All we can do is change what we focus on, and the only person we can change is ourselves.
However, we can also be an example of how to do it right. Or we can be an example of how to do it wrong. Either way, we will have an influence on others. Some people imitate us, and follow our example. Is our example worthy?
From: Twitter, @BCSENT
confirmed at : http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/e/eminem299055.html
Photo by woodleywonderworks
Happy Birthday to Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem, born 17 Oct, 1972
