You know what I never understood about the “Golden Rule”? I mean, aside from the fact that there are multiple golden rules. I just can’t wrap my head around this whole “treat others how you would like to be treated” thing. Even as a kid, it just sounded/sounds… Naive? I’m not entirely sure that’s the word that I’m looking for here, but it’s the one in going to go with, for now.
Why is it assumed that others would like to be treated the same way that you would? You’re not them. You are you, and they are they (would it be “they”? Them? someone help me out, I have no idea what pronoun to put here). The saying doesn’t work the other way around. I’m sure you’ve seen people embrace being talked to and treated in ways that you would be less than happy to be on the receiving end of. Yet, this rule sticks. Why?
We’re so desperate to keep the status quo that we attack those who so much as question it. Ok, I’m going to do my best to stay on topic here and not go down the rabbit hole that last statement opened up in my mind. Um… Relationships. Yeah. Relationships have been on my mind a lot lately, mostly because they’ve been the topic of a lot of the conversations that I’ve recently found myself in. Talking about and thinking about the couples that exists in my friend group, family, and even amongst my acquaintances. Excluding the toxic and undesirable ones, some of those couples interact with each other in ways that I would not be a fan of. But it works for them.
Strictly focusing on the healthy and thriving relationships in my life… We’re getting off topic. I started this with acquaintances and friends in mind, not couples and romantic relationships. Within your friend group, or at least within mine, we take turns being the butt of the joke. It’s all fun and games. But you know that you can joke more with some than others. It’s wrong to expect someone else to have skin as tough as yours, or as thin as yours. Honestly, I kinda lost my train of thought here.
I just had someone reference the golden rule to me and they were shocked when I responded with “treat others how THEY would like to be treated”. Like, it was an unfathomable concept. I don’t know, I’m still a little rusty at putting my thoughts on paper, don’t judge me.
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Until Next Time, treat someone.
Ok, let me explain. I searched my photos for “golden”, “golden rule” and finally “rule” and somehow THIS picture is Thor (autocorrect chose to randomly insert the God of thunder, who am I to argue) closest I could get to something somewhat related to this post
Alphonso Francis White 