Thursday, July 17, 2014

the kid already there

unwrapping the gift of one’s self

are we born who we are?
are we shaped to be who we are?
do we choose to be who we are?

evolution has hardwired parts of us:
the body, basic drives,
our parents, and our teachers, reward and punish our actions,
as does the school of hard knocks--
so our software updates,

still there is mystery in how a self comes to be
somewhere amidst the countless firings of neuronical connections,
and as senses and experience input data we make decisions,
within that stream of process
someone comes to be who decides between this and that,
who can look at a mirror and see the self looking back,

I see my grandchild
and I love the self before me,
I am intrigued by how much is a given
and by how much is self-made,




I mostly feel that passing time does not build the self,
I feel more that passing time 
further unwraps the gift of the person before me
who is already there at the most bacic of what is real.


by Henry H. Walker
July 8, ’14

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