Man's Inhumanity to Man

Lately I've been bothered by the relatively common occurence of people treating one another like shit. For example, I was watching Extras tonight, and while it's incredibly funny, much of the comedy centered around so-called "proper" actors slagging on Ricky Gervais' character for never having had a speaking part in a film or even television. I ended up feeling really bad for his character in spite of the fact that I was laughing at him. It's funny on TV, you bet. But funny in real life -- well, we think it's supposed to be, 'cuz we saw it on television, right?

I like sarcasm as much as the next person (and at times I believe it's an art form in and of itself), but culturally, sometimes I think we've taken the need to score points off one another a little too far. It's pretty easy to find a weakness and exploit it. And it's pretty hard to find a way to acknowledge and support a strength -- we have very little cultural experience to fall back on. But just because something is hard doesn't mean you shouldn't give it a try.

Look at the people you deal with everyday. Do you treat them the way you want to be treated? Do you take a minute and place yourself in their shoes? Do you try to perform one small act of kindness in each life you touch, whether it's something as simple as a smile in the morning, or holding the door, or offering a compliment? I know it's so much easier to move inside our own little worlds. But if we all stay in our own little worlds too much longer, I'm afraid there won't be much left to come back to. Think of it as doing a good deed for yourself.

"What you deny to others will be denied to you, for the plain reason that you are always legislating for yourself; all your words and actions define the world you want to live in." ~ Thaddeus Golas