A Bit About My Upbringing

I grew up on a street where I had tough choices to make.

Some of those choices seemed alluring, and there was pressure to be like others.

I could have chosen to be a gangster. 

And / or drug dealer. 

And / or a pimp. 

And / or a thief. 

I could have done what my neighbors and street friends were doing.

But something kept me from making excuses regarding what supposedly was a fixated mindset existing outside my home.

That fixation that some people call 'superiority' or 'entitlement' or whatever term that fools people into believing they are less than the next human being.

In transcending the 'easy' way of making excuses (which produces a hard consequence), I chose the 'hard' way (which has brought easiness). 

In due time, I have learned that whether or not people hate me, or whatever they think of me, holds no bearing on my thoughts, decisions, words, and actions. 

There was a time I didn't believe this and simply would respond to hate with hate (on the inside, sometimes on the outside). 

Thus people, although sometimes ruled by external and very real forces (physical realities / unjust 'laws' / outright degradation), their inside is to be a temple unto God. 

In focusing on what is happening on the inside, a temple has been built that cannot be destroyed even when the stones are removed.

For it is something eternal, not temporal. 

So whether I, in this short lifespan on earth, become a wealthy man leveraging labor and physical things atop the entire apparatus of this world (what some may consider 'living life to the fullest'... 

... or whether I am an unknown commoner somewhere obscure and at the bottom of the entire apparatus (what some also realize to be 'living life to the fullest'), I still WIN. 

Those arguing and fighting over the past, or what they 'think' they are, or taking pride in things they had nothing to do with, or chasing after physical things, are unaware of who they've been created to ‘be'.

They are, instead, drawing an identity from earthly ideas of men... and this is why they strive, mock, accuse, and destroy themselves.

It matters less if others believe I am created in His image and likeness.

It matters most that I believe I am created in His image and likeness.