Expectations: I'm Sick of 'Em!

How do we really get to know anyone else? Is it the time we spend with a person, the pointed questions we ask, how we’ve seen them in times of joy or revelry? What about stress and/or grief? Think you know someone? Think you know yourself?

The ubiquitous “they” of the psychology world tell us that personality is basically set in our early twenties, making allowances for behavioral changes that may be a result of maturation and/or life experience thereafter. So does this mean if you knew someone when he or she was 23 and then meet them again once they turn 32, you can expect them to react in similar ways to like situations? Can you ever expect to be surprised, and if you are, what does the surprise say about you? Of course, this is a vague psychological/philosophical quandary that has led me down that dangerous path of thinking recently. Not only have I been pondering the expectations I have regarding certain folks I think I know, it has had me wondering about what certain folks expect of me. Who knows whom?

Expectations, man. I’m sick of ‘em—of having them and being bound to them. As a quasi-religious person, I’m more apt to embrace hope, wonder and surprise if it comes fruitfully, authentically, sincerely. Who doesn’t appreciate sincerity?

And so until further notice, I shall not be the following, despite your expectations:

‘Characteristically’ enthusiastic
Ditto: interested in what you are saying, unless I am genuinely so
Malleable: it just buries anger, prolongs stress, denies the self

I do promise however, to be:

Sincere
Productive
Pensive
Kind and
Aggressively authentic