Sponges

i've noticed how people would sometimes ask me "how did you find out ?" or "how did you know ?" whenever i would tell them something they didn't know about or they didn't know i knew about.

you have time to do that ? is a common thing i would hear after i tell them i found out from the newspaper or read it online or heard it on the radio.

it's easy. i just notice things. it's all out there if you just paid a bit of attention, sometimes you don't even have to.

it's also sponge-like behaviour. we're sponges.
we have a tendency to pick up things by osmosis, just like plants.
it's how we were when we were kids.
notice the way you talk, or walk or what you eat and think.
you picked most of it up from the people you grew up with.
it's repetitive behaviour.
before you know it, you become like them or become one of them.

scary, but true. we'd like to think of ourselves as higher forms of being.
but we do things at a baser level.
we really have to think about how we do things or why.
we want to protect a way of life, of seeing and doing things.
we may deny it as much as we want to.
but when you turn on the radio or television, or read the front pages of the newspapers or your chosen webpage, you will see how much people everywhere are doing the same thing, operating at the same level of intelligence or intolerance.

we're all the same - sponges.

and wonder not when someone asks you why you think or act a certain way or why you know certain things and adhere to certain truths. you've sponged off your elders' way of life and thinking and watch out how your kids will turn out.