someday i'll fly... someday i'll soar. someday i'll be something much more.

I find it incredibly disturbing that one situation has the power to mold personalities. I wonder if we, in the West, are hypersensitive to these things. Of course, terrible things happen in other countries, but do third world countries crumble under situations that aren't very serious? For example, we are raised in a society that considers you "lame" if you're a kid who doesn't have the latest video game products. Over here, that could be considered something that psychologically ruins someone; it could be something that forever molds a child's personality. It could play out as something like "my parents never loved me enough to buy me the things I wanted as a child" or "we were poor, so we never had the luxury of the rest of society"...

One tiny situation really goes a long way here. I tend to think that more serious things happen in other, less-developed countries, but mostly because the mentalities are so different everywhere else. Maybe I'm just naive. However, in my struggles, I really think it would be easier to cope if I was in a country where my issues became ridiculous compared to theirs. Maybe that explains my current hypersensitivity to all of the problems I've been hearing about in the world.

Anyway, here's something to ponder:

"'Most birds were created to fly. Being grounded for them is a limitation within their ability to fly, not the other way around.' She paused to let Mack think about her statement. 'You, on the other hand, were created to be loved. So for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around... Living unloved is like clipping a bird's wings and removing its ability to fly.'

There's the rub. He didn't feel particularly loved at the moment.

'Mack, pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly... And if left unresolved for very long, you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place.' "

--The Shack