Introverts, extroverts, bullies, narcissists, entitlement. The Golden Rule. Thou shalt nots. Respect, honor, cherish, consider. Assert, dominate, lead. Empathy, strategy, growth, compatibility, intelligence, emotion. Pride, power, destiny, heritage, belief.
And those are just the ones I thought of in a two minute time frame. They are big, powerful words that work their alchemy to produce all kinds of feelings.. some good, some not so good.
Lately, I’ve spent (probably too much time) thinking about what it takes to be a good person… and when I say that, I don’t just mean a good hearted person, I mean a genuinely good person to the extent that you make the things and people you choose to engage with better off for your involvement.
I know, right? You have to know when to step in and when to step out. You have to encourage without judging. You have to know when you’re emptying your personal pitcher on to barren ground and stop. You have to know when there’s something that can be done, even if it’s just to say, I’m here and I care.
So when I think about what we see now in the world around us- I truly don’t want to believe anyone is just a one thousand percent horrible person. What I do believe is that there are people who feel one thousand percent okay to do whatever they want/are able by their own definition without consideration the impact to anyone else. And if you remind them, however lightly, that what they are doing could cause a problem for someone Not Them, they react explosively.
You didn’t deny that they have the right to the thing.
You didn’t say it was a bad thing and shake your finger at them.
You didn’t tell them not to do the thing.
You just let them know the thing they want to do means ripples from it exist outside the bubble of their own space. That what they do impacts other people.
And like any 3 year old told that maybe pennies in light sockets aren’t the best plan, they throw a tantrum. They have rights, it’s their heritage, no one’s going to tell them what do do cause they aren’t the boss of them, they have no authority, blah, blah, blah.
How does someone who wants to be a good person handle that? How do we handle that as a society? I’ll be honest, I don’t want to live among people who act like inconsiderate shit bags… but I also like having pizza delivered at midnight, so hermitage in the hills is kind of out.
I’ll let you know if I figure it out.
In the meantime, if you just identified yourself as someone that has been the person lashing out due to a situation like the one I mentioned above and you don’t like that… I have a book for you that might help. It’s cheap, it’s portable, and I like to think it’s at least a tiny bit entertaining.
Curiouser and Curiouser 