Sunday, March 18, 2012

To the person who didn't eat their pizza crusts. I'm trying to get over it.

One of the unfortunate things about the fact that we have to live with other people is that we are constantly at the mercy of other people’s choices. Which I suppose can be awesome when they do something like leave skittles in your hollowed-out calculus book, but can be seriously sucky when they do…a myriad of other sucky things that suck.

Scott Pilgrim pretty much says it best --

You kicked my heart in the butt (or for the unedited, and let’s be honest, funnier version, watch the movie).

So being at the mercy of other’s people choices means that you get hurt and it’s pretty much unavoidable unless you live by yourself on an island.
And then when your heart gets pushed over, all the conference talks about forgiveness are a lot more meaningful and dealing with it all becomes not so easy.
Forgiveness is probably one of the hardest virtues because it often feels like sacrificing yourself at the altar of vulnerability. Maybe that’s why forgiveness is often perceived as weakness. But forgiveness is different than getting trampled on and it takes some serious courage to let yourself be open enough to forgive.

But really this is what I decided; the world was never hurt by anyone being too kind. And no one ever lost any self-respect by forgiving someone. So it’s hard. And sometimes you might get screwed over because you’ve been too loving or too kind. And sometimes you might do someone’s dishes and they may never notice. But so what, you were loving someone… and that’s never a loss.

In the words of Mother Teresa…with one of my all-time favorite quotes:
"People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."