A wise person once said that all of his time on earth he was sure that the world was such a messed up place. But then over time, he realized that the world isn’t messed up on its own — we’ve messed it up. He acknowledged that we have made our world a mess and are the mess that we see in the world.

The world gives and gives, and we continue to take and take. We are not perfect. Humanity is not perfect. The world is a dying breed and we may be destroying it. When we acknowledge that we are a mess, that we have created an even bigger mess, then we can try to heal that mess from the inside out.

And where do we start? With us? With ourselves?

Every single thing that we have ever done or been subjected to has made us who we are today, along with our genetics. Who is to say that if something was caused by one’s environment and experiences that it was a choice? Do our genetics not predetermine the extension of us, as rubber bands, as how much we can bend and grow? Perhaps that is an inconvenient truth – that there are limitations to us and what we can do. But even so, we cannot reach those limitations until we push, and bend, and bend until we can’t… until we spring back or until we perhaps literally and figuratively break.

So if as rubber bands, genetics provide us a point from which to bend and move and spring from, and if our experiences that we have been subjected to throughout our lives were not necessarily our choice, and let’s be honest, they frequently aren’t, especially when we are younger – how can other things that stem from that be considered a choice?

And if it isn’t considered a choice – perhaps just poor circumstances or misfortune, then does that necessarily mean that it was a poor afflicted coping, does that mean a person is less than just because of those poor circumstances, does it mean that that person, through “failed coping” mechanisms, is ruined genetically? Therefore also less of a person?

Who gets to determine that another human being is DEFECTED based on any of these things? What it was – genetics, environment/circumstance, “choice” or actual choice —  is irrelevant. Who as a human is perfect, who as a human does not have messes to deal with – how can people marginalize others by essentially saying that they are DEFECTED, LESS THAN, in such a manner.

We all have our messes. We all have our vices. They may be different, they may be posed in different forms, but we all have them. And perhaps at times we do not see the similarities and that they are exactly our vices. One is an alcoholic, one relies on the crutch of smoking pot and is constantly high, one solves issues and provides comfort through food, one snorts cocaine through the nose, one injects heroin up a vein, one slices open their skin up like a red river.

You may think to yourself, I am different, I will never do this or do that, I will cope my own way through this other thing. But is the need not the same? The need to cope is the same, how it manifests is different.

We all have our own ways of coping with this life. With this world.

We all have our vices. And while they may all be different, they are also all the same. We all have wounds, we all have messes, they may all be different, but they also are the same.

The world is beautiful, we are ravenous. We have helped make it a mess. But it does not falter, it rebounds like its own rubber band. Until it can’t. 

Look in the mirror. Be conscientious. Be kind. Because everyone really is fighting some kind of battle, and everyone has their own ways of coping. Who are you to judge? Are you perfect?

I will give you a clue. The answer is probably ‘no.’ And that’s okay.

But don’t cast a stone if you aren’t perfect, you can’t play God, and your conceptions and judgments of people are only based upon what you know. They’re based on your own experiences and your own knowledge.

Who is to say that your knowledge and understanding of the world is best, is most complete, is not limiting? Because we all have our own limitations.

Leave the judging up to someone else with a more omniscient perspective than yourself. And if that is no one, so be it. And if it is someone or something, and it is not you, do your best to be kind and have an open heart and mind, because what you don’t know and aren’t open to will not help expand your mind and enrich your life, but if you are open to it although unfamiliar, you may see more of this world and how it is a beautiful place.

Because we are still beautiful in a messy kind of way, and the world is still beautiful regardless of the pain. It is still worth exploring and experiencing regardless of our 'defects,’ genetics, 'choices,’ or actual choices – once they are made they become experiences, that we can learn from, and hopefully become better from.