This Cage We Call The World

"We are like rats in a cage and the cage is the world."

My professor said this last night.. (for those of you who are new to the blog, yes I am still in school. I love school. Hate homework and tests, but love school and am slowly but surely getting a degree. Too little studying at USU.) So this is why I love going to school... for thoughts like this put out there unknowingly by a intellectual pompous professor (why is it the more you know, the more you think you know.. shouldn't it be the opposite?). Thoughts that make you think, ones that make you realize things outside your small head and naive world. If you study behavior you will see that we are all just a product, to a large extent, based on our surroundings. We are rats in a cage trying to survive in our surroundings. We adapt to the surroundings whether it may mean religion, marriage, language, goals, hobbies, etc. Just something to think about. We are the way we are for many reasons, I will not profess to explain or put one reason or even three on why we are what we are. I do think it's interesting, often disturbing, and very educational to admit that we have the tendency to be rats in a cage. We are conditioned to respond to things, to find importance or unimportance in things, to see things, to buy things, to become things, often for the wrong reasons... and we may not even know it. We are taught, we learn what life is...by our surroundings.
Which brings me to another topic I have been pondering (yes, there is more). The importance of location brings into play our cage. I do not venture very far outside of my city. Have you seen the trees here? Anyway...this is where I spend 95% of my life. I have really enjoyed it here. I have made a family, best friends even. My neighborhood is almost becoming a family outside of my family. There are people here I truly love and especially admire. I feel that they keep me grounded.. we live in a place famous for down to earth people and people with real roots. These things rub off on you. I see these people often. Most even by choice. I just think I am so lucky to have found this place, been put here on purpose, because I never really realized in my house desperation how important the cage the house is in is when shopping for a house. These people around you could watch your kids when you need a break, run with you, vent with you, empathize for you, come to your kids' birthday parties, come in your house without you there, become your second hand grocery store, borrow you wine-if you're lucky :) TO COOK WITH, CHILL OUT.
Anyway to sum it all up.. If we are rats in a cage and the cage is the world. I sure am glad my cage is here in my little Hansel Gretel, weird swirly painted posts, jamaican house. (You'd have to see it to understand.)