This morning I read a column by a woman I have not read before. Although I did not care for her epitaph to Elizabeth Edwards nor her picky comment about John Edwards' white shirts being too large, it did trigger some thoughts.
Have we come so far, technologically that we are now robots rather than humans?
People do things for various reasons. In the case of Elizabeth Edwards, I believe she led with her heart. (My own father used to say I wore my heart on my sleeve and he warned me about that till he died when I was 22.)
I did not know Elizabeth Edwards personally but I did know my old friend, Belinda very well. She lived to reach out to others, to make the other person feel good about themselves. She always wanted to stop and sit down with the person who was not doing so well. She was as close as it has come in my life to knowing an angel here on earth. She also died much too young and I miss her every day. (Her husband always calls me "Belinda's old friend" so I have to think that B used to tell others about her "old friend". ) We are very lucky if we have such friends in our life: non-judgmental, listening, reaching out . . . special.
Each of us is only a small part of this huge universe. If we live in the Big City (as I did in Toronto), we quickly learn that we have to get along with all kinds of people - from many walks of life, many religions, many races. Where I live now, there is not that diversity and so there are not perhaps as many ways of looking at life.
Each person counts. No matter whether you practice Christianity or some other mantra, if you sit back for a moment, you can see that.
If we were all the same, life would be very boring and in fact, there would not be much to talk to any other people about.
It is fundamental to respect other people. We don't have to agree with how they live; how they do things or what they believe. We just have to respect their right to live as they wish.
We seem to have a generation now in their late teens and twenties who feel us older folks are simply technologically challenged and unable to "get it".
Our grandparents made Canada and United States. Yes, with their hands, they toiled the soil; worked five and a half days a week; helped those less fortunate and still made time to sit down with their children at a dinner table groaning with homemade food.
There is no application (app) on your cell phone or ipad to truly connect with other human beings and their feelings.
Generations before me have thought this way and I hope generations following me will come to the realization that we must reach out to other. When we sit down and give some time to those who may be different from us, we always learn. We always benefit. We always come away feeling good about ourselves and leaving them feeling good about themselves.
It is extremely hard to understand the harassment - or bullying as they are calling it today - that is going on particularly among students.
In our area, we just lost another student to suicide this past week. How bad is that? How bad is it when my young friend on Facebook posts that this was his worst day ever?
We are only young once and it should be a great time for learning, for experiencing, for making memories that last a lifetime - and I mean GOOD memories.
Let us not judge the other person lest we be judged. (I know that has been said many places, but I am saying it today.)
Let us live and let live - again, as we used to say - and have respect for every other person to have their own ideas, their own ways of doing things.
Most of all, let us be kind to everyone - because everyone has something that is troubling them. Everyone has something they don't like about themselves. Let us not remind others of their weaknesses but encourage their fine qualities.
Let us respect all human beings. Let us remember that everyone struggles with something.
The attractive people - like John Edwards - struggle with their magnetism just as those of us with weight problems struggle with food addictions.
In high school - a girl's school - I admired several girls who were (or so I thought) prettier, smarter and trimmer than I. One girl I really felt had it all married her sweetheart who also seemed to have it all. They made the perfect couple, didn't they? Yes, perfect enough that when her sister died very young, to adopt her children into their own family and raise them as their own. All these years later, when I go back for reunions, that "girl" and I have a lot more in common than we ever had back in school.
Everyone has problems. We have them at different stages of our life.
Teaching children and friends to respect the other person helps them as much as anything else we can do for them.
. . . and there is no app for that!
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