No Accent...

"Life is what we learn as we live it. And it is what we learn as we live it that tests and shapes the mettle of our souls."

I'm not sure what Joan Chittister means by "soul" (in the quote above), but as I see it, life shapes our thoughts and attitudes... which, in turn, shape who we become.

We need people around us, our whole life long, reacting to what we say and do, to teach us. We bounce ideas off others to get their reactions and see new perspectives. But in reality, all of life is a "bouncing" process. Everything we say and do gets bounced against others - unless we are hermits. Until we see the reactions of others, we consider our actions and ideas to be flawless! (Everyone who thinks differently, of course, is wrong!)

It's almost like foreign "accents": Everyone else's accent is "foreign." We have no "accent" of our own... until someone tells us we do!

"I thought you had a British accent," a fellow traveler (from Rhodesia) once told me in a Paris subway, when I was helping her find the right train.

"I thought you did, too!" I replied.

We all have "accents" - we just aren't aware of them... or of any personal or cultural biases, annoying habits, and so on. We never see ourselves as others see us.

"Our own dirt is cleaner than other people's dirt," my mother once quoted to me when I was in my teens. I remember thinking: Wow! I never thought of it like that, but - you're right. (That's why it's so easy to criticize others. And so hard to see any faults in ourselves!)

In other words, "We have no accent..." Or so we assume... But, in reality, we all do.