Say what you mean, mean what you say....

I have been told that I have a large personality.  I have been told that sometimes I say things and people take offense and their feelings are hurt.  These are the same people that know that I would never intentionally hurt them.

So let's say that I did or said something to hurt your feelings?  What would you do?  Give me the benefit of the doubt and bring it to my attention OR take it personally, throw away our friendship and never tell me the reason?

In my life I have had very few that made the first choice.  Most have made the second choice.  It's like they don't even know me at all. Or, they didn't care enough about our friendship to take a risk and bring it up.

Am I an ogre?  Would I stomp around and eat their liver?  Nope, I would first listen to what they had to say, apologize for any hurt and do my best to smooth it over.  Plus, I have never enjoyed liver so why would I eat yours?

Over the years, this has made me paranoid.  I send a text or an email and it goes unanswered.  Are they mad at me, have I offended them somehow, what did I do wrong?  Then I start to beat myself up only to find their phone was lost under the sofa for three days.

How do we break the cycle?  I have consciously made an effort to be more careful about how I say things.  I try not to ever tease anyone, even in the most harmless way.  I work hard to recognize the body language of those around me to make sure I have not offended someone.  I will have to say, it is exhausting.

Would it be easier just to let those people go?  Absolutely!  Do I want to let those people go?  Not really.

When did we become such haters?

Every time I am on social media or watching the news, I see/hear yet another story of people hating on other people.  This person is bad because they drove too fast down my street, that person is wrong because they park in front of my house.  Don't go in my bathroom if you aren't really a girl.  I am a better parent than you because I don't (pick one) feed them crap, ever let them out of my sight, allow them to ever misbehave at home or in public.  I call bullshit on all of us.

I got news for you folks, we are NOT perfect.  Not one single person on this planet is perfect.

We spend so much time worrying about situations and things that have never happened to us and probably never will.  We condemn those that are different from us for not being the same.  Hatred, prejudice and anger are flowing wild.  How did we get here? 

We want the government to leave us alone, then we want them to make stricter laws against anything we believe is wrong.  You can't have it both ways. 

What happened to love thy neighbor as thyself?  Do we really hate ourselves so we have to spend time unleashing those feelings on others in hopes that we would feel better?  Then there's the Golden Rule - do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Do you want your neighbors, friends, peers, family members to treat you like you are treating others?  God forbid you ever make a mistake or do something that someone else doesn't like because these same people that are hating with you, will now be hating against you. 

Let's grab the pitchforks and the torches.  String them up from the nearest tree.  Behaviors that should be far behind us now that we are a "civilized nation" are now brewing back up in full force.  Where does it end?  Who has to die to satisfy our sense of wrong or injustice?