pattern recognition

you are raised on flinstones, jetsons and tang. you know what reality is when you see these recognizable signs. but if you remove the familiar, the mundane and all the habit forms, you get a blank screen with ghost trails of the past... you start to rebuild a picture from the bits you can scrape together. you make a few steps and you puff up with pride ... YOU are different, YOU are special, and YOU are making the grade.... then the screen goes blank again. how can we know the significance of an act or gesture? all the philanthropic deeds in the world couldn't match even just one smile if that smile were from the heart. there is a stray cat. he is not cute. he is desparate. he is the looter, the crying kid with his arms blown off. he comes to steal my food... my heart...