Perception is Reality

This topic has come up numerous times in the last month with various friends.

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." ~Anais Nin

Our experiences, our histories, our perception molds everything - who we are.

It's funny, you can be at a party and an incident can happen and ten different people at the party recount ten different versions of what happened... And they will all be right.

Any event has specific particles which makeup the action, but interpretation is always subjective. Are we even capable of monitoring an event and not letting our feelings assist in the interpretation? Everything we see, hear, touch and smell has a knee jerk reaction, defined by experience. Every experience is owned by perception. Even objective journalists, judges, ambassadors can't help having a feeling associated with every experience, even if they suppress it. As humans are we brilliant enough to separate the two?

We exist as "feeling" beings for a reason.
We love.
We own passion.
We pride ourselves on being intellectual beings, yet clearly affected by experience and feeling.
Our passions ignite change.
Yet we rally for equality and fairness.
"All's fair in love and war", is the epitome of our self-service. Nothing is fair. Or equal.
It only exists because we try to balance our intellect with our base human response.
Who you are is only based on how you act. And why others perceive you as who you are is solely based on their reaction to your actions.
You can be whoever you want in this world, and your actions do indeed define you, whether you believe in everyone else's perception or not.