Forget the rest, you know best???

Another fellow blogger responds to my one measly little post with-- "forget the rest, you know the best." Wow -- such thought provoking insight -- to think it came from a Desi male. Sorry Mister Umerica, no offense intended.

We humans differ from animals on many levels, but one of my most favorites is our human ability to make a choice, we ALWAYS have a choice. That having been said, do we really have a choice in choosing to "forget the rest." How do you deal with the many many relationships in your life that tug at your ability to make choices that they would favor. How do you not let what your family, friends and others think of you not affect you? On one hand, I think I am a free-thinking, free-willed, independent woman, but how many of my "independent" decisions are actually independent. Of course, we are all influenced, directly or indirectly by those around us, we do not, after all, live in a vacuum.

Is there anyone out there who can truly say, that even though others may affect their thought process, their ultimate decisions are theirs and theirs alone. They take full responsibility for their choices, solely enjoy the rewards and solely suffer the consequences. If there is someone out there like that, I would love to meet him or her and make them my "guru."

We may not realize it but just as we tend to pick up mannerisms and gestures of those constantly around us, so do we also pick up their values, moral and principles. Being born in India, but raised in the US, I find that I am confused. I came here at a very ripe age, but my parents fulfilled the Indian familiarity I should have had if I was raised there and of course on the flip side, I acclamated myself to the western "Americanized" familiarity here in the states. So are my decisions, issues, neurosis a result of the constant conflict between the two familiarities or something else all together?