Stale Content Alert!
This post was written a long time ago, and my views have almost certainly evolved since then. Please keep that in mind while reading, commenting, or sharing.
You see, the funny thing about other people is that they’re human.
Everyone messes up. Everyone has faults; everyone makes mistakes. And when they do, they often inadvertently end up causing someone else grief. It will be you at some point in your life. It may be you often in your life, if that way land the dice.
We get frustrated with the things other people do. We look at them and say “Oh my God, why can’t you just X?” or “Jeez, why do you Y?” But how many times have you been on the other side? How many times have you used the defense, in your own head or out loud, that you’re only human, or something to that extent? The fact of the matter is that sometimes people mess up.
And sure, react to the action. If you must react and direct anger or frustration toward something, the action is the proper target. But reacting harshly toward the person themselves is simply silly. Perhaps they should know better. But we’re dynamic, changing beings. Sometimes, the wrong things are present in our minds. Sometimes we just slip up, and for that moment, don’t know better. Do you really want to blame them for not having complete and total control of themselves all the time? If so, are you offering that you do have that control? You don’t, and they don’t. No one does. We’re simply human, and that’s that.
There are some simple truths about humanity. We will get jealous. We will react inappropriately to things. We will skew our priorities and put the wrong things at the top. We will create bizarre, convoluted justifications to convince ourselves that what we know isn’t kosher is somehow acceptable in the circumstances. We will forget the most important things and remember the least, and we will commit abso-freaking-lutely ridiculous things in the name of the things we hold highest. In short, we do stupid stuff.
Y’know, though, that’s okay. Life’s an adventure. If you don’t scrape your knees somewhere along the way, then you’re doing something wrong. Everyone you know is going to do something so utterly stupid that you want to throttle them, throttle yourself, or both. So will you.
I suppose my point is something like this: Let others scrape their knees as they will. We’re all on this crazy journey together, and we’re all bound to bung it up at some point. Don’t persecute them for playing so hard they fall.
If you succeed somehow in doing this, tell me how.