I'm a simple person, really. I just wish I could understand human nature even as I live and breathe as part of the human race.
I am so overwhelmed with unkindness and sneakiness and selfishness and a number of other words ending in -ness. These are all things that I try desperately not to be, and I cannot for the life of me understand how these things are a way of life to so many people. Why in the world would you actively WANT to be an asshole?
I guess maybe I'm not such a simple person. My life philosophy is to do everything I can to help other people, to give all of myself. I get frustrated, ridiculously so, when people don't hold themselves to the same standard. Somewhere along the line, either from my parents, in Girl Scouts (hey, come on, I was a Brownie for one year), or some other location that escapes me at the moment, I learned something called the golden rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated.
That's how I try to live my life. Do I always succeed? Nope, although I can live with what I do accomplish under that dictum. I seem to do at least as well as most people and obviously far better than some.
I mess up all the time, and I really am okay with that. After all, the bigger your mistake, the more you learn from it, at least if you're someone that takes things to heart the way I do. I learn an awful lot every day : )
I don't know how to live in a world where there are people who espouse a philosophy that cries out the polar opposite.
I guess all I can do is keep on trucking, though. I can only be the best person I can be. I can honestly say that I've learned and grown from all my mistakes, the huge ones in the past and the unknown of the future.
I just wish that human nature was more forthcoming.
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I know this is not really the point, but just a musing about the "golden rule": I think it is inherently flawed. Is it not a tad presumptuous to assume that the way I would want to be treated is the way someone else wants to? Belle's Santa Claus incident comes to mind-perhaps that other kid places a premium on literal truth rather than reserving innocence (okay probably not-in all likelihood, he was being a little shit-but it is theoretically possible). By treating Belle as he would have liked to be treated (hypothetically speaking), she was wronged. I prefer an important change of what seems like semantics: treat people as they wish to be treated.
ReplyDeleteIt's awfully hard to tell, though, how others might wish to be treated. I see your point, though.
ReplyDeleteIt just bothers me beyond words to see the cruelty that transpires on a daily basis for no good reason. I mean, why are there so many people that clearly get off on being assholes?
I think because they themselves are bullied, or are terribly afraid of being bullied. I don't know why I thought of this, but I came to that realization when I worked at the grocery store in high school. This guy asked me how much some random thing was, and I said that I was sorry but I couldn't recall off hand. He smiled and said (verbatim), "Yes. I doubt you'd be working *here* if you could." Seriously, what an asshole. Why pick on a kid working at the grocery store? Because he could. I don't know how, but I *knew* that he had been crapped on all day, and I was someone take (probably unconsciously) take it out on. I seriously believe that there exists a chain of douchebaggery, if you will.
ReplyDeleteI think it's human nature to carry the pain of bad things more than the euphoria of the good things. Unless, of course, you're a very positive person by nature, and I've found that the biggest smiles often hide the greatest pain.
ReplyDeleteIn much the same way that you tend to share your joy when good things are happening, I guess you probably do the same with the "douchebaggery" (you need to patent that word!!!!!!!!!).
Is this true of everyone, though? I'm not proud to admit this, but I know for a fact that it's true for me.