Blinded by Impact

In a sense it’s true that we are at any moment the sum total of what has happened to us in the past.

But that doesn’t have to be true.

What impacts have shaped you and your view of the wide-world?

Is it what your parents have told you?

Is it what your teachers have told you?

Is it what your pastor or priest has told you?

And how did their views take shape? The same way, I’d venture to guess.

If the impact of what has happened to us in the past shapes how we perceive the present, and that present perception weighs against the motive to take action to shape the future, then I’d say that we’ve been blinded by those impacts. That is, if the impacts of our past dissuade us from even trying to make a difference, or severely limit the scope of any attempt at doing so.

I have a special term for being blinded by impact in this fashion. I often say that one is suffering from “impact blinders.”

What exactly do I mean by that?

Let me give you an example. If you were brought up believing that the return of Christ is imminent, meaning at an moment. And that when the trumpet sounds his return, all “believers” will be caught up in the sky with him and the earth and everything left in it will be doomed to fiery destruction. Well, then, you’re probably not going to opt for a career as an environmentalist.

I guess you could, but I seriously doubt there are very many environmentalists who subscribe to that notion concerning the “imminent” fate of people and planet.

Similarly, if you were brought up in a home that believed in the superiority of the white race (and believe me there are many “respectable” southern homes teetering on that lunatic fringe), then you’re probably not going to take much action in support of racial justice.

Or, if you were brought up in a home that subscribed quasi-religiously to free-market principles. That the market is “free” and must be maintained free (from any government intrusion) at any and all costs to society. Then you’re probably not going to join any movements in support of economic justice.

They probably never stop to think about how those things got there to begin with. My point is that they were surely placed upon (or in) your young and impressionable noggin. And you can take them off. You can take them off and when you do, your impact vision will be restored.

I believe that in order to maximize our potential for impact, we have to be able to see the opportunities that the universe reveals to us. In other words, impact mindfulness requires an open-mind. One that is open to seeing the world as it truly is, not as the impact blinded influences of your past might have taught you that it is.

Don’t be blinded by impact.