As I look at the sun finally going down in the valley, I can pretty much close the book on another weekend. The temperature hand still shows that we are still above triple digits even with no sun. As I reflect on the past week/weekend in preparation to have an amazing week I find myself thinking a lot about preferences.
Most times when I sit down to write there is always some sort of background to the story that aided in my arrival at a topic. Over the last week I have engaged in several conversations about preferences and why. Some of them have been quite interesting while a few others have left me with a smirk that still hasn’t left my face.
One of my very good female friends recently stated that I needed to find me ‘something to do.’ I was like what on earth are you talking about and she said that “I need to set you up on a blind date so that you can find someone that enjoys the same things that you do.” So after that was said she started asking me questions about my preferences, we ended up debating for a minute because she stated I was too picky and wouldn’t embrace the idea of what she was trying to do.
After we got passed all the debating I began to think more about preferences and why she could possibly see me as picky. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I was being picky, but I felt if I was given an opportunity to weigh in to tell you what I prefer it does hold some weight. For example, it really drives me up a wall when people call me ‘Nick’ after I have told them to call me ‘Nicholas’ on numerous occasions. Ultimately I have a preference on what I would like to be called as often times ‘Nick’ means that you may be comfortable with me, when that may not be the case.
If we are in situations where the opportunity exists to choose one thing over another, we always have some personal bias to why we decision that we make. We may be influenced by people or other factors in making our decisions, but we still ultimately have a preference. I think one of the biggest areas in which are very intentional about our preferences, are our relationships with people.
So as I move forward with my latest adventure, I began to ask myself a few questions that you may be asking yourself as well. What do my preferences say about me? What are the factors that influence my preferences? People? Environment? Past experiences? Is it my upbringing that has influenced my preferences?
I trust that you are well rested from another great weekend, and that you have elected to start your week in an amazing way. No matter what your preferences are, there’s one thing that can’t be argued – you should always prefer you over anyone else that you could possibly be. No one is better at being you than you!
“We can love nothing but what agrees with us, and we can only follow our taste or our pleasure when we prefer our friends to ourselves; nevertheless it is only by that preference that friendship can be true and perfect.”
-Fracois de la Rochefoucauld
“Most people have come to prefer certain of life’s experiences and deny and reject others, unaware of the value of the hidden things that may come wrapped in plain and even ugly paper. In avoiding all pain and seeking comfort at all costs, we may be left without intimacy or compassion; in rejecting change and risk we often cheat ourselves of the quest; in denying our suffering we may never know our strength or our greatness.”
-Rachel Naomi Remen
“To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying "Amen" to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to keep your soul alive.”
-Robert Louis Stevenson
“Men are apt to prefer a prosperous error to an afflicted truth”
-Jeremy Taylor
“I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on”
-Rita Dove
“We demand that people should be true to the pictures we have of them, no matter how repulsive those pictures may be: we prefer the true portrait in all its homogeneity, to one with a detail added which refuses to fit in.”
-Pamela Hansford Johnson
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