What makes things what they are

We’re looking at 8″ of snow, with snow still falling here, and the wind blowing, gusting to 40 mph occasionally.  It’s a snowstorm.  We hate it.  Why do we hate it?  It’s a snowstorm. If this was December 23rd, we’d love it!  The skiers would love it!  The kids would love it! Everybody would love it!  We’d have a white Christmas!  But it’s not the 23rd of December.  It’s April 2nd.  We hate it.  Somehow, it shouldn’t be happening.  It’s ruining our spring.  It’s mucking up our roads and making a mess.  It’s slick and cold outside.  This is a load of crap.  What is it, again?  It’s a snowstorm.

So what makes the difference?  Things are what they are, right?  Well, yes, if you don’t think about them.  See, when we think about things, then we have all of these psychological assumptions and rules in our thinking processes, combined with the way we feel emotionally at the moment and how we feel physically, along with what we’re doing or have to do or want to do with our present moment, in addition to what others may think and/or do about what we’re thinking and/or doing in a given situation, which is never “ideal” for any two people at any given time.  Thus, based upon all of this, we have a perception of reality. The reality is that it’s a snowstorm.  Thinking about a thing – forming an inevitable perception of a thing – is what makes things what they are.  Otherwise, things are what they are, and remain so – unnoticed, mind you.