If you think about it, we are born a blank canvas. We have no memories. We have no prejudices of any kind. Our skin is perfect, and blemish free. But from the first day, everything effects us. We learn behaviors. We are taught who we can trust, or who to distrust.
Our skin becomes marred. We get scars from various sources. We get freckles, and moles. We are effected by everything. Some things are taught to us, others emerge from our reactions to experiences.
Today, I was thinking of a friend that I have known since junior high (the late 70s). Petina wore a pendant that was a Star of David, and a cross. I asked her about it back then, because I had never seen anything like it. She said her father was Jewish, and her mother was Christian.
Without realizing it, that simple conversation effected me. I was impressed that she could accept both facts, and be ok with them. They coexisted in peace.
I learned something that day. You don’t always have to agree with everything, but you can live in peace with them. I learned you can believe two seemingly contradictory things, but they make sense to me. I believe God created everything, but things evolved.
We are all a product of our upbringing, and our environment. We are a product of the people we are exposed to. It’s our responsibility to take our experiences, and knowledge, and paint a beautiful picture with it. We are a blank slate, but we can make ourselves a beautiful addition to this world. Make it a better place.
Bellaelena 
We are, indeed, products of our environments and we tend to assume that we can never change that environment when we have the ability to. Some of us do change it, some never do even when change is called for. We never stop learning – or, we shouldn’t ever stop because the world outside our individual environments is so diverse and rich.
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