"Beware of turning into the enemy you most fear. All it takes is to lash out at someone who has done you some grievous harm, proclaiming that only your pain matters in this world. More than against that person's body, you will then, at that moment, be committing a crime against your own imagination."
...Ariel Dorfman
Novelist, playwrite, & essayist
I've known too many people in my life that fit this description, sadly, some of them I am related to and truth be told, I'm neither exempt from the occasional lashing out though I try very hard to treat people the way I wish to be treated. It's when I encounter others in their reckless disregard that I tend to fall short.
I encounter them every day at the law office -- they call, they drop in and are usually rude, irrational, and completely oblivious to the affect their inconsideration has on the person(s) at whom they are bitching, ranting, raving, and whining (usually me). This is not to say that I, or any other member of our staff, don't try our best to be compassionate and attentive to a client's pain or personal emergency regardless of their often inappropriate attitude.
One has to keep in mind that when a person visits a law office, they generally are not having a good day. And whatever the crisis, it is the most important issue in the world to that person at that moment.
This is not to say that we don't have some wonderful clients that we enjoy working with and strive to resolve their difficult situations and make their lives easier. We do and that's the ultimate reward. I'm not talking about them and I'm not just talking about clients.
What I have the most difficulty with are those who are so blinded by their own personal agendas and self-absorbed life that they take everyone else for granted, complain about everything, lack empathy toward others, and somewhere along their paved journey through this world, their own sense of entitlement has caused the connecting inner strand of humanity to break within them.
And like Harry Potter's dementors, they suck all that is good and happy and positive right out of those around them.
I really need to learn how to cast a patronus.
How I wish it were that easy...
"When we come into contact with the other person, our thoughts and actions should express our mind of compassion, even if that person says and does things that are not easy to accept. We practice in this way until we see clearly that our love is not contingent upon the other person being lovable."
...Thich Nhat Hanh
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