Absoluteness.

When I was a kid, and I was once, if I ran around and crashed into someone at a store or some other place, that person would proceed to punish me unless I apologized, Perhaps not quite the way Mom would, but there would certainly be stern voices and perhaps some physical contact.

I was unruly as a child. I could never sit still, I was always "discovering" things even after being told to stop. Once, I was fishing with my father when I spotted a black van parked at the base of the pier on which we stood. I picked up a pebble and tossed it at the van, striking the metal roof and creating a pleasing metallic tap that I replicated several times, that is until the owner appeared, screaming at me to "stop throwing rocks at his fucking van!" At another beach, this time in Panama City I wandered off to play with a kid in a small tidal pool across the jetties. My only concern was having fun playing with another kid, but when my parents looked frantically for my washed up body all along the shoreline only to find me obliviously splashing about in the shallow water alcove nearby, I knew I'd done something wrong.

Kids do that, I did that. Kids don't care about anything but themselves typically until puberty teaches a youngster that, hey, there are others out there with feelings that I care about. Or perhaps after you look at your mother's red, tear streaked face and hear her say she doesn't want to look at you right now will you realize this. I think that's about the time I learned. I was seven.

I don't have kids. I want them. As a person who does not have children I have plenty of opinions about what parents do wrong. I've also been on the earth long enough to know that you truly never understand a circumstance until you've experienced it. Intellectually it's simple; do this, don't do that, you will turn out fine. Intuitively, emotionally, it's unrealistic. Unless you have children you have nothing meaningful to say on the subject. Therefore, I keep quiet, except to my wife.

For me to observe someone in a moment as a discrete experience in my life and then make a snap judgement about what that person should do negates their entire history up to that moment. Perceptions change with a shift in condition, people become more tolerant of certain things and less tolerant of others. Why should that happen? Because it does, it is the nature of things. One can no more protect against refocusing than one can stop the entropy which rules all aspects of life.

I now own two SUVs, and I like them. Sometimes I drive with the air conditioning on and the windows down, and this is especially pleasant in Florida winters. Often, I will drive because I want to experience roads devoid of traffic, when the sun is setting and the sky is beautiful. I spent a good part of my life being economical mainly because I could ill afford not to be. When I have the resources, I make life better for myself. I will always do that because I've earned it, and because I earn it anyone else's opinion with respect to how I distribute my resources is worthless.

A person only gets ninety years or so to play out their lives, after which everything you've done personally is rendered meaningless. Should one listen to what people tell you is right or wrong and base a life on this, or should one experience life by choosing paths dynamically based on consequences? Even that is not a question one can answer for everyone.