Transformation

By Ridge Makavelli

Every product of being is a result of the process of becoming that encompasses the changes to which it is subjected. There is a common thread between Adam and Eve, coal and crude oil.
As a natural resource, crude oil is drilled from deep underground and taken through the vicious cycles of energy exchange to obtain various petrochemical products.
Also found deep underground, coal is taken for a ride through certain processes to yield its value. Adam and Eve, symbolical as they are, went through various phases to become adults and care for themselves outside the Garden of Eden. Each of these analogies involve transformation: change and growth.
In Transformation, Ridge Makavelli draws analogies from engineering practice, philosophy, life, nature and personal experiences to paint an image of some of the elements of change. Transformation signifies the thread connecting the past, present and future and thus the ability to change and grow.
Transformation considers the value of what someone creates for themselves and amid life’s fluctuations. Makavelli outlines that the value of one’s transformation is in the ability to learn how to live; then how to live better and finally how to live better with other species around them.
Bringing practicality into the fundamentals of change, it is also a sign of humility to realise change may be different for each person. Hence, Transformation offers an engineer’s practical opinion on change and growth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ridge Makavelli
• Release date: Aug 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005026929

Ridge Makavelli

A chemical engineer by professionAn artist of lifea spiritual being by nature

Book preview

Genesis

1

The Beginning

The Common Thread Between the Garden of Eden, Crude Oil, and Coal.

We all begin life and start the cycle of existence somewhere. We all have some initial starting point. All species begin somewhere, all organic life in general has some starting point. Plants begin as seeds planted into the soil. Looking at things from a manufacturing perspective, the products we buy all begin as raw materials. Everything has an initial phase of its own. We can call this natural beginning the ‘genesis’, which means ‘creation’ or ‘formation’.

Naturally, as humans we are born and begin our lives as infants. Other animals such as cows begin as calves, while the lion king begins as a cub. The products we consume and buy from stores begin from some constituent items. So, as a general overview, all things begin somewhere.

The first book of the biblical texts speaks extensively about a narrative of how things began. The general theme of that chapter is that the world was created from darkness and humanity was created from dust when God breathed life into the dust. That’s the story I was taught to believe. We may not necessarily agree on the nature of the description of the texts from the Bible, or other manuscripts that try to describe the beginning, but we may agree that things naturally begin somewhere. Therefore, as a general analysis, everything has a beginning.

It should be noted that in recent years, many questions have been asked about the real nature of the beginning of things. Even with the rise of archaeological evidence and Darwinian theories, the question still remains, How did organic life begin?

When it comes to the Biblical texts, I have also had my fair share of questions. The narrative that all of the cosmos and the universe were created in seven days does not seem to hold up. I am not familiar with other religious views on how the world came about since I was brought up through the Christian belief of things, but purely based on the Biblical narrative, things do not really make sense. If indeed the world was created in seven days, and the first humans were Adam and Eve, then who was practically there to witness these steps of creation and write about them? Surely, if someone could write about the seven days of creation they had to be there, but if the only humans that were there at the time were Adam and Eve, then the narrative does not add up (unless they are thought of as visions from ancient people).

Perhaps the writers of the Biblical texts also stumbled upon such a deep question, and due to their lack of concrete evidence, they decided to direct the complexities of such a question to some unknown force, i.e. God. They may have had the intuitive idea that ‘things begin somewhere’ but may have gotten lost in the practicality of their narrative. If that is the case, then we can excuse them for such an error which has led so many people to preach this narrative without realising such an impractical situation. What we can take from the first book of the Biblical texts is that things indeed began somewhere. As far as nature is concerned, beginnings are natural. That’s what Genesis is about.

All species are born into an environment. Plants sprout through the dry ground after some period of watering. Wild animals give birth in the wilderness. Chickens and birds crack into life from their nest of eggs. With us as humans, we are born into a so-called ‘home’, the environment where life begins for most of us. One can generally say that all species have a natural habitat where they begin their lives. As a result, life begins somewhere for all organic species. However, there is the deeper question of identity when it comes to ‘home’, which we will dissect later. For now, consider home to be where you think home is to you.

From this natural habitat one begins to grow. Plants start to show their leaves and little chicks start to run around with their mother. Human infants start to move by crawling and walking. So, life begins somewhere, and from those initial stages more things happen, but without those initial stages, the rest of the stuff cannot happen.

This is not only observed in organic life, but also in practical daily activities. For you to be doing something throughout the day, you first have to begin the day. You first have to wake up and get up, which is simple enough. With jogging, if you want to run 10km, you will have to get beyond the first few metres. With education, for you to finally reach your objective goal of obtaining a certain qualification, it all starts in the lower grades. To finally produce a certain product such as a whiskey drink, the process begins with fermenting water and barley. This is our general consensus with the genesis of things. With human nature, irrespective of where one is born, people get to assert their nature and get to express themselves through their different environments which lead to different outcomes of expression. Whether different or not, each environment allows them to express themselves, and as people do this, they begin to develop certain habits that are interconnected with their environment.

An environment has an implicit role, not an explicit one. People create life to the best of their abilities within the environment they have. This does not place all burden on the environment but shows the optimum connection between the environment and the people within that environment. The expression of growth in all species is evident through the building of certain common habits with their environment. Birds learn how to feed and then to fly. Infants learn how to be fed (and then to feed themselves), to be bathed (and then to bathe themselves), and eventually how to crawl (and then to run around in chaos). Flowers bloom and some plants grow to be huge trees. As birds grow, they learn to build certain habits within their environment. As infants grow, they learn to do certain things with what they see each day. The environment fosters some sort of expression.

As humans, we enter an environment in which we are required to adapt to grow and survive. From an early age, most of our habits come from the social cues we receive. We are born somewhere and we grow to adapt to the environment we are born into (a cold or hot environment, for instance). This place of birth is usually the place you regard as where you come from when asked, Where do you come from?

Physically, our lives begin somewhere. This is also evident in other animals. They are born into an environment where they are required to search for food, be protected from other dangerous animals, and adapt to their immediate surroundings. As a survival strategy, the first processes of change are evident from their adaptation and learning new ways of living in a certain environment. One’s nature of growth is affected by one’s adaptability and the environment in which one may need to adapt to.

In the beginning, we as humans are sometimes at an advantage in that we have a world created for us, that is to say, we hardly have to exert ourselves in order to get food or shelter. More often than not, we are fortunate enough to have a roof and a few people around to take care of us. Plants are blessed to be planted into soil with good nutrients and water, or to have someone who can provide those resources. This doesn’t mean the world we are brought into is perfect, but it certainly allows us to have a good start, even with the things we may label as ‘bad’. Whatever the situation, infants hardly exert themselves in building their home or searching for food. At an early stage of life, our biological parents or guardians are usually at centre stage.

Upon thorough observation, this not only counts for humans, but also for other animals. In the animal kingdom, what is important is the mother-infant bond which facilitates the idea that naturally, infants are at an advantage of coming into the world and having things created for them during the earliest times of their existence.

Ultimately, with the resources we have, life begins somewhere for us. Most of the time this place is not our choice. We have no control over the environment we are born into. Practically, there is nothing anyone can do about this and no way they can influence where they begin. From their mother’s womb, no one can communicate their preferred environment or country of birth. Can you imagine the little kicks in the womb as a symbol of frustration that the environment one is going to be born into does not meet your approval? It would be some experience for the parents, being denied by the infant prior to birth!

Jokes aside. We do not choose the environment into which we are born.

As an engineer, you don’t get to choose the natural state of the raw material that yields the best products. Crude oil is crude oil, and engineers may not be able to choose the natural state of crude oil. Mineral ore is mineral ore, and engineers may not be able to choose the natural state of the ore. Hence, life begins somewhere, with the resources we have at our disposal.

Without a choice of where you are born and when you are born, you are susceptible to the environment you are born into, and you are vulnerable to the people and the things that surround you in the very early stages of your life. Your life takes shape from the initial environment you are born into. If you are born into an environment with the bare minimum resources necessary for survival, your life takes shape from then on. Similarly, if you are born in an environment with medium resources available, your life takes a certain direction.

It would be ignorant of one to think that the initial stages of your life don’t have an influence on your life. The environment connects to the habits to create something of the individual. However, the initial stages is one of those things you cannot control, and essentially the maximum resources available to you are those available to the people that give birth to you.

As an engineer, coming across minerals does not mean I have control over the quantity and quality of those minerals. I don’t get to dictate whether coal should be gold in colour or grey or black. I don’t get to dictate whether crude oil is pink or purple. I find it as it is and deal with it.

A more subtle and unrecognised example is the colour of someone’s skin. Like it or not, you don’t get to choose the colour of your skin. It is out of your control. You begin best with the resources you find, as you find them.

Let’s consider a symbolism of this beginning. Since being an infant means everything is largely provided by the parents or the caretakers, and the child does not have to exert themselves to be taken care of (unless when crying for attention), this initial phase can be similar to paradise, where everything is provided and available. Everything is at the child’s disposal – they only need to cry. The world of responsibility and choice is still alien and everything seems playful and joyful. The child does not have to worry about work, or school, or food, which will be provided by the adults. Just like it was for young Adam and Eve, the initial phase is similar to paradise for the child. You don’t have to take the story of Adam and Eve literally – it’s more like a symbol – unless you really think there were two people when everything began.

All infants (humans and animals) experience a sense of paradise in the initial phases of their lives. They are fed, taken care of, and protected against danger. They don’t have to exert themselves to survive, apart from learning how to walk and talk. For the rest, it is almost always ‘play-season’ for the child.

While not neglecting the fact that different environments may exhibit different forms of paradise, we have to agree that most children are given an initial platform, just like young Adam and Eve.

One may be born into a home of luxury or one with barely enough resources to get by, or even one without any resources to get by. No one has a direct influence on the financial well-being or the resources of the home they are born into. These resources are beyond the child’s control, or their concern. The one thing that is of more immediate concern is the breast milk of their mother, or just milk from commercial sales. As some months pass by, soft food becomes a priority. It has nothing to do with the monthly salary of the adults, or how big their house is, or whether there is food in the fridge or a gaming console.

One could be born into a family with certain religious beliefs, or who is of royal descent. All these characteristics of the family that one is born into are not chosen, and they are not important when one is young. They are either a challenge or an enhancement. One does not get to choose how one looks or the shape and form of their body.

Plants and seeds do not choose the soil they are planted into (the farmer does that). The soil may be rich in nutrients, or rich in nutrients that are not conducive to their growth, or the soil could have no nutrients at all. Surely, the conditions where they are planted in are not within their spectrum of control. It is the person who plants them who takes the responsibility of care for the plants in terms of the soil quality and the amount of water supplied. There is some similarity between seeds and infants, where we can liken humans to seeds.

It goes without saying that as you find yourself in any environment you’re born into, you begin to grow. Like planted seeds sprouting into life, you begin to bloom. Irrespective of where you are born, given a certain amount of food, shelter, protection, and water, you will grow. These factors are provided in the early stages of life, but as time goes by one tends to grow into providing these for themselves. With human nature, it should be noted that the human mind tends to adopt subtle traits of where it begins to grow, either from the teachings of parents or whoever you come to associate yourself with. You adopt some things – emotional reactions, habits, rules, norms. Basically, you learn some survival habits.

Adam and Eve started to gallivant around the so-called Garden of Eden, getting to know the place, growing fond of some of the surroundings. The mind attempts to diagnose the surroundings it exists in and adopts certain norms and cultures of that environment.

This initial grasping of things is necessary for growth and for survival. During this process, you begin to know the general dynamic of the environment, the norms of what is applicable, and you start to build a certain relationship with what you know about the environment you are born into. You adapt. You begin to know the people, the culture, the food, and before you know it you begin to appreciate how most people are likely to act and the common values of that environment. You simply get a general feel for the environment.

You also begin to navigate your inner nature with reference to what you have been exposed. You learn what to express and what to suppress about yourself with respect to what is required from your environment. If you are a sensitive person, and your environment demands brawls and fights, you are likely to develop certain mechanisms that help you cope within such an environment. If you are more robust, and your environment requires you to take heed of emotions, then you are likely to adapt. Adaptation is needed to survive. When experiencing different environments, you develop the ability to study that environment and realise how different those environments are from where you normally practice. For instance, running under low pressure feels different to running under high pressure. Running in a much more humid environment takes a different toll on the body. The more you try to adapt, the more optimal you become at running in a particular environment. Running at 6am in South Africa may be similar to running at noon in Russia, who knows. As you begin to run, you get to understand the relationship between the body and the environment, which will drive you to adapt and get the best out of you.

Similar to running, the conditions you set for a processing plant differ in accordance with the environment where the plant is based. At sea level, the air pressure is higher than it is at a greater altitude upcountry. The ambient temperature also differs. So, as you begin to set up the plant, you may have to set up different operating conditions to suit the process while also taking environmental conditions into account.

The idea is that, when you live in a certain environment for a certain period of time, you begin to adopt some of the traits of that environment, especially when you are young and still learning certain things. This is why two people who grow up in different parts of the same country are likely to develop differently. It is even more so when a different country or continent is considered. These individuals turn out to be quite different because they are exposed to very different environments. On a mental-emotional level, they are exposed to different stimuli, the same way vegetation planted in different conditions will react and bloom differently. Different people thrive in different environments.

Adapting is a survival mechanism for all species. As long as plants can adapt, so, too, can humans. They may struggle, and face huge challenges, but they can adapt. As Charles Darwin noted, It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change, that lives within the means available and works co-operatively against common threats.

Imagine if the Garden of Eden did not have the same paradise characteristics as described. Imagine if Adam and Eve had to make their own food, and cater for their own initial existence – how cruel would that be? Children making their own food, never mind them not being breastfed, is harsh enough. They would grow up with a different sense of the world, due to the environment they would have been exposed to. They would have developed different mental-emotional patterns and explored different survival tactics. They would have developed certain coping mechanisms. Those are the effects of stimuli. Several types of plants have diverse ways of coping with different environmental conditions. Different fluids behave differently under different environmental conditions.

Stimuli works on a mental-emotional level. Growing up in a place that encourages young ones to play sport has a different effect compared to the environment that pushes them into creative arts. Growing up in an environment that exposes young people to drugs and alcohol has a different effect compared to an environment that exposes them to reading books and attending school. Being in a family that suppresses talents and emotions has a different effect compared to a family that allows one to explore the talents they love. This is stimuli.

However, such stimuli are just social cues. They form what we call ‘norms of a culture’ or environment. Human beings are social creatures and have always congregated in groups. This strategy has been good for survival, reproduction, and the attainment of food. In the past, hunting was dangerous and was more likely to result in you getting killed than you scoring a kill if you attempted it alone. Hence, the more people you had, the better. Social cues feed the mind certain norms and values. It allows the environment to create some sort of a social urge for one to do certain things.

If you see your parents, or peers, or any figure you admire, going a certain route or doing things in a certain way, you get an urge to try this for yourself. You may not do it the same way as others, but at least you try. That’s the significance of the environment, as far as stimuli are concerned.

Social cues lead us to a realisation that it is what you grow up feeding into your mind that shapes something about your perceptual reality. A generation that is exposed to different stimuli like social media will have different ways of dealing with life. A generation that lives from interpersonal connections and one that lives offline has a different way of looking at the environment. A generation that thrives on video games is shaped differently from one that is required to spend more time outdoors, doing practical work. So, the grasping of how people live is largely influenced by the stimuli they react to and what they are exposed to.

A generation that grew up under the reign of dictators developed different coping mechanisms. If some people who lived during those years were brought back to life now, they would feel alienated and disconnected from the way things are now.

From nature’s perspective, social creatures rely heavily on their environment when it comes to their survival. A person in the Amazon rainforest lives differently compared to most people in organised societies like cities. If the people in the Amazon and the people who thrive in the corporate world were to switch places, both would need to adapt to the unique environment they now face.

As a general observation, social creatures learn their environment for survival as they adapt to it. The process of learning in the initial phases of life develops a mental image, which is simply the way you view the people around you, the environment, and life itself. The mental image – some call it a ‘paradigm’ or a ‘worldview’ – gives one a picture or a reference of life to work from. It generally governs what we think or see about life and how we have come to interpret it. By example, for someone in China the view of life may differ from a person living in the United Kingdom. The mental image one has from growing from a poverty-stricken family is likely to be different from one who grew up with abundance, or from one who grew up with some emotional neglect. The mental image elicits certain types of reactions and actions towards specific situations. It is like a frame of reference.

These reactions tend to be fostered in people in subtle ways. It is not until you become conscious of this worldview that you begin to see how you react to things, usually during intense situations that demand mental thought or emotional investment. Primarily, you develop your common norms and certain ways of doing things in the environment you are born in, which tend to aid the way you see life and how you react to certain situations. A person who develops a scarcity mentality probably grew up thinking that the only way to survive is to take and hoard everything for themselves. Perhaps they grew up in an environment that had resources just sufficient for survival. On the other hand, a person who is ignorant of the value of resources probably grew up with more than enough to sometimes waste these. A person who knows how to make use of every single resource behaves differently than a person who behaves in ignorance.

The causality of such actions may differ from person to person, but there is no denying that different views facilitate different approaches, and perhaps behavioural patterns.

You should note that wherever you find yourself in the beginning and the initial phase of your life, it may not be a result of your choice. That is, you cannot hold yourself primarily responsible for where you are born or where you are raised. It is out of your control. Knowing this liberates you from blaming others and yourself for where you are born and may be a bit helpful when attempting to change certain norms and values as you get older. Instead of sabotaging your own life based on the initial environment you were raised in, you are liberated to accept the choices you can make.

Adam and Eve found themselves at an advantage with the paradise they had, but they cannot give themselves any credit for their existence in the first place. Many people around the world find themselves at a disadvantage – they have a lack of shelter and adequate resources – but they cannot blame themselves for where they are born primarily because one cannot control or influence such circumstances. If you cannot control your initial environment, why would you blame yourself for it, or take credit for it? Your parents may be part of a royal family when you are born, but does that make you superior? Technically, it has nothing to do with you. Similarly, if a person is born outside of a royal family, does that make them inferior? Technically, it has nothing to do with them. You couldn’t control the environment, so why invest so much credit or blame in it?

Due to a lack of control as to where one is born, one is likely to age and begin to attach negative emotions and develop negative thoughts towards where they were raised. One may classify the place as the wrong place to have grown up in or thinking that the wrong people raised them. As things turn out to be difficult in the long run, some people blame and use their uncontrollable place of birth as a way of finding comfort, and sometimes as a scapegoat or as a defence mechanism to divert life’s troubles.

I was born in an abusive home, so I am abusive. I grew up fatherless, so I cannot trust anyone. My parents did not invest in my football career. That is why I failed. All these statements take situations that are beyond one’s control and take away the power of a person to control what they can. This may come across as insensitive to what other people go through with their lives, but the general theme is to understand the nature of the genesis of things without issuing any control.

One must maintain the objective view that life happens outside one’s imagined process of how and where they should be brought up. One should take on the objective view that beginning in a certain place or environment that is different from personal expectations could have aided the entire process ingrained in the person in terms of their mental-emotional reactions – i.e., different initial circumstances could have brought a person who thinks differently and behaves differently to the same situation. This, of course, seems attractive if one is to blame their initial beginnings, but if one considers their challenges a blessing, or they derive a certain meaning of their life through their challenges, then all blame ceases to be useful. If one takes the initial conditions as they are and uses them, then all blame that manifests itself through a lack of responsibility ceases to be effective.

Is blame or credit on the initial circumstances explicitly useful? An example: You open a bank account. The account can initially have a positive amount (you have a deposit and have something), a negative amount (you owe the bank), or the value of funds in the account is zero. Does the initial balance explicitly determine the business transactions that are to come?

Let’s return to the Garden of Eden and imagine Adam and Eve hadn’t met the serpent or hadn’t been in the garden in the first place. Some things would have been different. Imagine they were exposed to a goat instead of a serpent, but regardless of what it is they met, maintaining an objective view is key to understanding that they did not choose to walk into the Garden of Eden. They were born there, as a symbolism. No amount of blame as to why they found themselves there in the first place can solve all the temptation they had to deal with. They had to begin their lives somewhere and as said, the early phases of any species is similar to paradise, hence the garden was paradise for them.

Perhaps a different garden would have resulted in a much smarter serpent, or a much less tricky one. Perhaps a more lenient serpent wouldn’t have tricked Eve, or perhaps smarter people besides Adam and Eve would have resulted in a better outcome. Either way, blaming the beginning and sulking about it does not make things better. It certainly does not help us deal with changing our lives for a better living. Having dry ground to plant seeds in or having watered ground to plant the seeds has an influence on the seeds, but it certainly shouldn’t influence a person’s responsibility to make their choice as to how they will approach the watering process after planting the seeds. If the ground is dry, one can choose to water it, and if the ground is wet, one can still choose to water the plants. One cannot blame preliminary circumstances for the choices they are able to make in the future, but one can acknowledge their preliminary circumstances as they are. Perhaps this answers the question of the initial bank balance.

You shouldn’t have to think of the environment as wrong or right. It is just a relative difference between what is expected and what is reality. Rather think of it as to whether it is conducive or not. The Garden of Eden was not a wrong place. In fact, it had everything Adam and Eve could desire. It would be very subjective and harsh to look at the experience of the garden in terms of wrong or right. The Garden of Eden was probably the best place for Adam and Eve. To be honest, it’s difficult to classify a birthplace as wrong or right, because a birthplace is just a place. Think of it in terms of being useful or not.

The type of soil, for instance, is never wrong or right, but it is useful to certain types of plants and not so useful to others. However, the idea of what is conducive or useful brings broader questions, such as how would we know what is conducive or useful in infancy? How do we begin to describe what is conducive for us if we have not yet known our own nature and while we still rely on others to take care of us? How do we even know our nature since life does not adhere to our own thoughts and to the thoughts of others about who we are or who we can become? This poses challenging questions.

Essentially, life is a paradox. We may have to grow from a certain place, only to change the environment later on in life because it does not serve the seeds we are planting.

Let us be objective for a second. Was the Garden of Eden the right or the wrong place for Adam and Eve? It is harsh to ask such a question because the only reason we talk about Adam and Eve so much is largely because of how they responded to the serpent, not because of the garden, although the serpent was around the garden. We don’t admire the glorious plants and trees of the garden; we look at how Adam and Eve screwed up due to the serpent. Blaming the place where you are born is like blaming the Garden of Eden for the limited capacity of Adam and Eve. That is harsh. This cuts deep into the interdependence between the environment and the people. It may be more about adaptation, growth and change rather than ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.

This brings us to the next point. You may need to grow to realise things, but once you’ve grown, you may not necessarily be able to influence what happened to you when you were young. You may need to grow to realise that the environment you grew up in was not really to your liking. From the analysis of what environment you would like, you adapt, change, and grow towards such an environment. This is not easy. Paradoxically, you may need to grow through initial pain to grow in a certain direction that is meaningful or to realise that the initial environment isn’t really conducive. You may need to lose things in order to value the very same things. You may need to grow in the environment you now classify as ‘wrong’ to finally reach a point where you can look at the environment differently.

If you plant seeds in a certain environment, and two years from now you realise that the environment was not conducive, you would have now learned what the plant does not require. Perhaps you may start exploring the nature of the relationship between the plant and the soil. As a paradox, the very same place that seems unconducive teaches one something about what could be conducive.

If Adam and Eve did not like the garden which they began their lives in because of the serpents that were there, perhaps they now had a better view of what could work for them. If a person does not think the relationship is conducive, then they have a better idea of what could work for them and what cannot.

If seeds wither in summer, then perhaps they will grow differently in any other season. Therefore, the beginning should be viewed objectively. A person gets to know themselves from the beginning and learns how to transform their life towards the direction they want to go while using the beginning as a reference. If coal does not combust under room temperature and pressure, then we need to adapt the conditions. If coal does not change its molecular structure to diamonds at atmospheric pressure, then we need to search for different conditions. We learn the environment we initially occupy, and then learn how to adapt and change.

There is nothing ‘wrong’ with where you begin, as long as you can change, adapt, and grow. The environment may not be conducive, but it certainly offers a starting point.

You grow towards being a certain person, only to realise that the environment you grew up in is – or is not – conducive to the person you would like to be. At that stage you cannot change and go back to the beginning, neither do you want to spend the rest of your life blaming the beginning that was not in line with what you wanted to create. Therefore, beginning is inevitable, no matter the circumstances into which you are born. It is outside of your control as to whether you are born or not, and so is how, where and when you are born. You cannot alter those. You simply find yourself conscious enough to suddenly realise that you exist. You do not choose your initial stages of life, and Adam and Eve did not choose the garden. By the time a plant starts to grow, you may realise that the soil is not of decent quality, and so you transform the soil by making some changes to the quality of the soil.

Do you remember your experiences of the first months after birth? I doubt it, but you may remember some things that happened when you were around five years of age. From around five years you started to realise that you exist, and although you had to be taught some norms, you could see, feel, and act on those. That is also when you started interpreting things and putting an image together. You started to develop a certain level of consciousness to your environment. However, at that young stage, life is not yet as serious and you are acquiring all the data of the environment around you. You begin to engage socially and to learn a couple of quick norms just to gain a few friends of your own age.

That is just the beginning of things. Life is not yet full of responsibility – you are still dependent on others to take care of you and to guide you while growing up, and to guide you as to what is essential. It’s still paradise!

The symbolism of the Biblical story of Adam and Eve is of two people who were born in an environment that was good for them, with everything they could wish for. It was like paradise until they became conscious of good and evil. As they realised that they existed, the naked truth struck them. As they came to realise that they exist, they realised the responsibility of living – and all paradise vanished.

As mentioned, life begins somewhere for us through the environment we are born into, which is not our choice as a starting point. It is something we cannot control. However, as we grow through adolescence towards adulthood, we begin to live as we make choices and we make choices as we live, whether consciously or not. We gain a little bit of control over some of the choices we make and so we can express some of the deep desires of what we want and what we want to do. That is growth. Our choices are the mark of growing into a more authentic and responsible person or being more responsible for taking care of ourselves. You must move from being taken care of and being reliant on others on a maternal, conscious and emotional sense to being assertive about what you feel and to think about your life in general.

Generally, this is what we refer to as growth – an expansion of sorts – since you start out by being taken care of and then expand towards taking care of yourself. You shift from emotional-mental dependency towards expressing your own feelings and saying what you think. Usually, there is a tipping point, a transition and a shift which is associated with biological-maternal instincts. In some stages you begin to find other people attractive. This tipping point is usually where you start feeling more responsible. However, the association between maternal instincts and responsibility does not directly correlate with the idea of being able to take care of yourself. It only associates with your instincts of finding other people attractive and trying to find a suitable mate with whom you want to reproduce. Even animals do this.

Essentially, one is born into a basic state – a ‘standard’ state – and then one begins to go through phase changes and transitions. These phases resemble growth, and through these changes one navigates into being the person they choose to become. These biological transitions are there within each animal. There is a tipping point in all animals when reproduction becomes a priority. If all animals go through such a biological phase change, then that phase change is probably not a good basis for gauging one’s levels of being responsible. If all animals go through a phase of developing attraction to mate and reproduce, then mating isn’t a conducive sign of responsibility, but one of biological transition.

The transition I am referring to comes in subtle forms of having some sort of a feeling, a calling, or having a desire to be someone or the desire to attain certain achievements that you may feel are directly linked to your gifts or talents. It’s a place where you feel like making real progress in your life or trying new things that you feel drawn to. There is a point of transition in terms of biological attraction and mating, and there is a point of transition with regards to what one desires to create with their life. There is a thin line between the two, where desiring to create may mean desiring to mate and have kids. But with creation, it’s more about what one would like to create that is of value to them. Almost all humans want to mate and reproduce, but not all of them want to run marathons, or study engineering, accounting sciences, or philosophy. Not everyone wants to play football, or hockey.

It is precisely this lack of desire for certain things and a desire for others that channels humans with similar biological needs into different creations. The transition of growth is associated with biological needs but encompasses the desire to act on one’s choices of what it is one wants to create. That is the transition I am referring to.

It is this transition of your life that ultimately makes the choice of friends, associates or even endeavours become important. It is during this stage where the pressure may increase significantly due to the resistance in doing what has always gotten you the attention and the praise – the norm and the mundane. You may keep doing the same thing instead of the new things you may want to try, whether it be a new skill or a different route compared to the one you have long followed.

Some people move into this stage having done well in certain aspects, while others would have liked to have done something different with their lives, but struggle with the pressure to make valuable decisions. Some people are simply scared of making decisions that could lead to mistakes which may jeopardise their ‘good’ achievements. So, they avoid the responsibility of doing what they really like by avoiding the responsibility of making choices. Therefore, they keep doing the same things. They neglect the path upwards by going sideways. From nature’s perspective, one could say these people keep planting the same seeds in the same type of soil. They keep trying to reinforce the same results of praise, instead of taking a new direction of growth.

When it comes to making choices, one can say you always make choices. In a sense, choosing to neglect your gifts and talents is a choice not to work with them. Choosing to let some things go is making a choice not to hold on to something. Choosing not to make a choice is also a choice, and this is what scares most people about freedom – making valuable and responsible choices.

In the early phases of childhood, these choices are modelled by the people one is brought up by, whether it be our parents or guardians. As much as someone may have periods of acting out their true nature, some of the decisions you make may be clouded by the environmental demands of where you are. Therefore, one’s ability to make choices may be limited by the dependence on the people who raise you. Some of the expressions you may have about life through your thoughts and feelings may be suppressed or limited in that regard. Some of the things you may want to express yourself towards may be hindered due to your dependence on others during your childhood. So, the way you learn to express yourself and the nature of how you do it is modelled by your initial phases of interactions. You may be required to suppress some parts of what you want to do, for the sake of maintaining your attachments to the connection offered to you by the environment. You may also be great at expressing yourself because you were primarily taught to do so. Otherwise, a balance of some things being suppressed while you are encouraged to do certain things may be part of the experience.

As mentioned, you are primarily susceptible to the people who bring you up during the early phases of your life. Adam and Eve were tied to some rules set by God, hence their choices were limited, like children. They could eat from every fruit, besides the one at the centre of the garden. Let’s not even ask why God planted such a tree in the first place. Was it a tree? Which apple tree is bad for a person? I’ll leave that to the reader to discern.

To draw an analogy: Think of the farmer who sows his seeds. For the seeds to sprout, the farmer and soil have a vital role to play. The farmer has to make the effort of making the soil conducive for growth and watering the seeds. As the seeds begin to grow, the farmer has to prune the plants for them to grow in the right direction and getting the best out of them. The soil is key, as its quality in terms of nutrients determines the growth of the seeds planted. Contrary to this description, the farmer may plant seeds and pour any form of liquid on them and not even care about their existence, or not even place them on good soil for their growth. He may suppress their growth by cutting them all the time or leaving them to grow in scattered ways. The farmer has a choice. Guardians resemble the farmer while the young are like seeds. As the young grow, they start to take on the role of the farmer, and they themselves plant seeds.

With the farmer-plant analogy, one may realise the responsibility granted to the people who raise children in the early stages of their lives. Neglecting the plants and not watering them leaves them to die. Watering the plants without care of their growth leaves them growing in a direction that may not be conducive. Similarly, neglect from guardians may influence the growth of a young person. A lack of balanced guidance from the guardian may leave the young ones without direction in how to become responsible adults. That’s the responsibility of the farmer – the guardian. Knowing which environment is best suited for the seeds (the young) is key. Knowing how to invest and groom the young to get the best out of them is key when it comes to being a guardian.

In the beginning, the young tend to show what they love doing, whether it be reading, music, dancing, or sport. Therefore, the guardian would be playing a significant role in creating an environment that allows the young to thrive. Noting that different seeds grow to be different plants, it becomes a challenging job to create a type of environment that suits the specific seed. This is equally so with raising the young. It’s a challenge for the guardian to create the exact environment that suits the traits of each child the best.

For the young it is a challenge to deal with an environment that is unconducive. Even the most fruitful seeds can die in an environment that does not support their growth. This is a challenge for the young. For the farmer, the challenge is knowing the type of environment for the young, while for the young it may be adapting to the initial environment. Whether born on soil, or concrete, the only way for the young to grow is to adapt and change if the environment cannot change.

Unfortunately, when you are born or when you are young, you do not come with a manual for the people around you to know your hidden potential, or the environment they should create for you. You rely heavily on their mercy to do their best with you through their attention, love, and some sacrifices. Being heavily reliant makes it difficult for them, since they may not have a clue of you or understand you, and it makes it difficult for you since you may find it hard to express yourself outside the limitations set by some of the norms instilled in you.

This is the complex nature of the beginning. With new plants, you may not have much background knowledge on the type of soil they require and are likely to apply quick methods that have always worked. If any adjustments are necessary, one will change with observation and attention. Kids today may still go through the same educational methods that were there a decade ago, although the kids themselves are different. For this lack of adaptation and change, we pay a high price of losing so much talented individuals.

One could argue that crude oil is still distilled the same way as it has always been, or that cars still use the same basic combustion engine model. As a result, it wouldn’t be wrong to keep the same basic model of how to raise the young. The challenge with this argument is to ask whether kids are the same across the board and if they remain the same throughout the years?

Let’s be objective for yet another second. Would it have helped Adam and Eve if they felt like they could express themselves to God? Would it have assisted them to express their doubt of the tree of knowledge and their true feelings? Why did they hide away, instead of being open about the mistake they had made? Would it have helped if they could voice their desire to eat the apple? Would it have helped if they had asked for specific reasons as to the guidance they were given?

Not being given the capacity to express yourself may lead to suppression of some of your