If this blog has convinced one person on one occasion to choose a kind work instead of a cruel one, it will have been worth the time I've spent here.
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I write here frequently about choosing kinder words, the higher ground, good manners, etc, and how I've been injured at times by others not doing this.
Although I have been kind more often than cruel (and suffered in a different way for that[1]), I wanted to make a note that I have been capable of cruelty as well, though I prefer not to dwell on it.
As a child, I was very unkind to Barbara Joe Allen, through 4th grade or so. Like Robert Schrader over here), Barbara is no longer with us. She died of cancer some years ago. If I had been in Erie, I would have visited her. I doubt I'd have had the guts to apologize, hoping perhaps she'd forgotten or forgiven me.
But no one forgets childhood cruelties, and few forgive them.
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Back to the topic at hand, I do get angry, more than I should, but try to turn down the volume in my head before others start hearing it.
What do I get angry at?
A few examples, in no particular order, this is just how they came to me...
• Youthful thoughtlessness (eg, kids texting and driving; I actually saw a kid in a large pickup pass me at 90+mpg on US131 South, on the shoulder, then the dirt berm, then back on the shoulder, then the off ramp, swerving while he looked at a mobile device in one hand and steered with the other.)
• Opulence and wealth with no governor - Washington, Hollywood, televangelism, musicians, athletes - the lopsided settling of wealth among those with no sense of responsibility for using it wisely.
• Indigence and poverty with no hope.
• Stupid reality TV - angry pawn shop customers, angry makeup artists and cake decorators and apprentices, and people that wrestle turtles or alligators or anything else that can eat body parts.
• The $5 "just looking fee" at a store in Brisbane, Australia (story >). The fee is reimbursed if you buy something, but the message is "don't bother coming in unless you're leaving some money behind."
• People angry at others because the others did the right thing.
• People angry because they got caught doing the wrong thing.
• People angry at others for the wrong reason. (Eg, Former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton shutting down a student translator in Africa after misunderstanding the question because she's tired and grumpy.)
c0
[1]
Some folks mistake kindness for weakness, and there is a certain other sort of suffering that accompanies that.
c0
I remember Dad exercising so much restraint - and not passing the 'you-know-what' along as it rolled downhill. Like you say - that costs something. There's a price to pay - but if we view it as the right thing to do, then we pay the price.
ReplyDeleteJust like anything else, you get what you pay for :-)
ReplyDelete--c0