.7 diluted

we are diluted.


a blue china teacup.
being filled with tea,
until the tea reaches the rim
so it overflows, spilling into the saucer.

what's more,
the tea
needs milk.
and to pour milk
in
to
the teacup
which is currently brimful of tea,
more of the tea has to exit the teacup,
right?



...let me explain:

i think that when we (er, to avoid more confusing terms like 'created' or 'made' or 'born')
- start -
each of us have
person-ness.
u know-
that-thing-which-makes-us-human.

all people have it.
and all things which aren't people,
don't.

it allows us to relate,
to endure,
to love,
to mourn,
to express
and examine
and discover.

i really don't know the scientifics behind it all - but let's face it,
we can see what it is.
we know it's there.

and, what's more,
we know we have it.
i have it.
you have it.

it's what makes us people.


plus:
i'm prepared to class whatever this thing is, this
person-ness
as -
good.

sure, it's a big if.
and quite a lot sways on it, too.
so whatever you do, don't take it from me.
make up your own mind.
(though the outcome of such a procedure may itself in fact depend on whether our person-ness is good - if our person-ness has anything to do with our mind - and if it does, any conclusion is flawed regardless...? hmmm,
maybe we'll broach this on a separate occasion).


anyway.
in my ignorance,
i'm content to assume we have person-ness,
and person-ness
is
good.


now,
as i say,
we possess this
person-ness
at the start.

and we possess it now.

and in ages gone by, when, for better or worse, we're on our farewell life beds, i'd say,
we'll still possess it.

it cannot me removed from us.
nor conviscated.
nor witheld.

nor exchanged nor altered nor tweaked in any way.

indeed, i don't believe that it can be damaged, for that matter.

neither could it ever be enhanced.

i can't see how educating or training or experience or goodness or spitefulness or hate or wrongdoing or persistence or greed could ever
change
a person's person-ness.

no augmentation.
no dimunition.

just, there.


right, we're getting there.
(the diluted thing, remember?)...


hang on.

i see people.
i know people.

i know me.

and it doesn't require much comparison for me to see that there appears a discernible contrast in the person-ness, say, between
him
and
me.

and look at hers.

it's just,
well,
so much better.
so much more.
more lovely
and genuine
and right.

for me, well,
let's just say
not so much.


but that's just it.

i'm not going to deny that person-ness is more evident in some people than others. with some, we can
see
it,
feel it,
know it,
count
on it.

it's there. it's really there.

not that,
they are a person.
anyone is that,
anyone is always.

instead, that person-ness which makes us cry
yes.

please.

wow-

i want that too.

it puts a smile on our face and delight in our heart because when we see it suddenly part of us ignites and reminds us that
this is what being who we are really is.
is.
that thing.
that good thing.

person-ness.


we are diluted.


because,

it is there from the start.
always.
equally.
in all of us.
not some of us.
unreplaced,
unaltered,
unchanged.

yet
less evident
sometimes.

when other stuff
gets in the way.

and it becomes


diluted.


that's all.