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Today's
Quotation:
A mature
person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who
is able
to be objective even when deeply stirred
emotionally, who has learned
that there is both good and
bad in all people and in all things, and who
walks humbly
and deals charitably with the circumstances of life,
knowing that in this world no one is all knowing
and
therefore all of us need both love and charity.
Eleanor Roosevelt
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Today's
Meditation:
I
remember once walking down a hallway at a college with one
of my professors. Someone had marked an entire wall
with marker from end to end, just holding the marker against
the wall as he or she walked. It was a pretty awful
act of vandalism, and my professor looked at it and said
"Someone must have a lot of anger inside to do
something like that." No "What a jerk"
or "What a stupid thing to do." No
condemnation of the culprit, no expressed desire for
"justice." She was almost sad as she said
it, for she recognized that something like that was the
result of another person carrying around a great deal of
pain inside.
It
was a very powerful lesson for me, one that I try constantly
to emulate. I realize that every person on this planet
is dealing with problems that I would have a difficult time
dealing with, and it's not up to me to judge and condemn
them for their actions. Rather, it's up to me to show
compassion and to try to understand the root source of the
problem.
Throwing
a person in jail for stealing something is often like
putting a band-aid on skin cancer--it's a quick fix to make
society look like a better place for the time being, but
that person will get out and probably still have the anger
and frustration inside that made him or her do the crime in
the first place. (Don't worry--I'm not saying that we
shouldn't have jails or laws!) We as individuals can
choose to "walk humbly and deal charitably," and
we'll then be contributing in our own small ways to making
this world a better place, even if it's just by showing
compassion for someone else and making that person feel
better about something in his or her life.
There
is good and bad in everyone. Jung called the bad side
our "dark" side. I feel fortunate that in my
life, the darker side rarely shows. I know that the
people who show that dark side, though, often aren't in
complete control of what they do, and would prefer not to
show it. My compassion and love and understanding are
going to go much further towards teaching them how to access
their bright side than my anger and judgment will.
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