Parallel Existence, Differentiated Paths

The argument over nature or nurture remains unabated, with different interpretations unleashing several schools of thoughts. Is a newly born infant a blank slate? or is it tainted by nature? Can clones behave differently? We know identical twins dont really.. Why am i posting about this?

There was once i googled my full name: "ong chin leng". Definitely many entries. I was piqued by the results, and went through 10 pages of the search. What took me aback wasn't the fact that there were quite a number of "chin leng" around. Neither was that there were two matches with the identical name as mine - ong chin leng. I was rather amazed by the many other identical "ong chin leng" could possibly exist in this world, virtually unreported. Many of them obviously didnt made it to the google headlines. Including mine. Of course that depends on the availability of modern communication in places they live in, but for those who made it to the net, it speaks volumes of efforts that these people, or institutions, which try to advertise and convey their interests in making themselves or their customers known.

The first clone of mine was this award winner in NUS. He got an award in doing research regarding electrophoresis. Awesome indeed! I was impressed upon the revelelation. Oh well, then i continued browsing... Guess who is the next person? A hawker who successfully tendered a stall at Toa Payoh area. Not that its inferior, i was just stunned. Again of course that website was a government website, not a personal one. Both are local websites.

Parallel existence indeed. But totally different walks of life. People around them conjure images of "chin leng". People socialising with the NUS achiever would definitely have a different impression than others knowing the hawker named chin leng. Another unpublished chin leng probably exists in some other part of the world. But what i have derived from this small episode is the extent of being conscious of how people view us.

Some are very concerned that others view themselves in a negative way. A few dont want others to construe certain traits of themselves, e.g. selfish, inconsiderate, boot-licker, etc.. Also there is another group who are over conscious, i.e their behaviour and actions therefore revolve around the aim of preventing such unpleasant impressions to be tagged onto them. Indeed all of us may not totally fall into the last category, but we exhibit tinges of such traits here and there in our daily lives. It is often inevitable because it is the workings of our sub conscious. But to allow further degeneration of these thoughts into generalisations and skewed perceptions is to endanger our mental state, hypnotizing our spirits unnecessarily.

There is just this thin, almost undiscernable boundary which separates the two extreme forms of self awareness. The way we are brought up and the environment we live in definitely plays a part in determining our predisposition. Yes, both nature and nurture. We would have to best manage our own expections towards a perceived image of ourself so that we will always lead a balance and fulfilling life.

Only in such a manner our paths in life would be undeviated and uninhibited.