What is it going to take to get us to stop hating and fearing one another? This is a very complex problem and no single answer is going to solve it. We have hatred between genders, races, religions, social classes, nationalities, sexual orientations. Our species is naturally oriented towards love, believe it or not. Otherwise we would never have survived this long. But we also seem to have hatred in our genes, or the capacity for hatred.
What makes people hate? Today I got particularly annoyed with a woman stopping her car on the crosswalk when pedestrians had the right of way. I did yell something at her, and though I didn't quite feel like strangling her, let's just say that had she opened her car door and stepped out I would not have hesitated to openly and loudly chew her out.
I quickly forgot about it and got over it. In retrospect, I am aware I have no idea of who she is, what kind day she was having, whether or not she is unwell, or if she, like many people behind steering wheels, is often too selfish, self-absorbed and frightened to really know how to deal with anyone in public.
I don't think we're ever going to get it. We are always going to be struggling with these issues. No matter how well people try to raise their children there is no guarantee that they won't turn out rotten. It happens with every generation. And there are always those of us who end up cleaning up their mess. People like me: mental health workers, emergency responders, health care professionals, lawyers, children's aid staff, social workers, prison guards, rehab therapists and more.
Somehow, in the midst of all this damaged humanity, we still have to engage with one another, whether we like it or not, and for the simple reason that every single human on this planet and in our history owes their sorry-ass existence to all the other humans. Without one another we are nothing. Somehow, we don't really like being reminded of this, do we, Gentle Reader?
After all, who fed us, rocked us to sleep and changed our dirty nappies for us, then continued taking care of us, and educating us, and then employing us, marrying us, helped us bear our children, took care of us in the hospital, then finally hung the dreaded little name tag on our cold dead big toes upon our arrival in the morgue for us? That's right. Other people.
I think I'm going to try to remember this next time I am inconvenienced by some self-absorbed stranger in public. That same person who might one day be delivering my meals to my hospital bed or helping me stumble to the toilet, should I ever need that kind of help.
If we are really going to learn to stop hating one another then we'd might as well start with remembering just how connected and interdependent we all are. And maybe the next time we feel ready to snarl out a cuss word at the idiot in traffic or on the sidewalk or on the bus, or wherever, that we can restrain ourselves just long enough to offer up a prayer of thankfulness that those people also exist and that, whether we know this or not, their existence gives meaning to ours, just as our existence gives meaning to theirs.
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