A conversation with a friend today brought forth a few thoughts. We all differ from each other. Yet, we expect each other to behave the same way as we ourselves do.
We are individuals. We are different. We are different individuals. We are individually different. Call it what you do, the bottom-line remains the same.
But very few people have the maturity and patience to acknowledge, appreciate and accept a difference between themselves and others. I have come across people according to whom majority of the world is wrong.
Do you have the patience to acknowledge differences?
Mind you, not different, but wrong! Being different is one thing, being wrong is another. What is right to you need not be to another. We are created differently.
We undergo dissimilar upbringings. We are exposed to diverse situations, people and styles. We have experienced a long period of dissimilarity. It is unwise to expect the person in front of you to speak the same language as you.
It is unrealistic to assume this. Till a few years ago, I used to ask myself (and others): ‘but how did s/ he do this? It is insensitive/ mean/ etc.’ But I gradually realized that it is bound to be the case.
One man’s poison is another man’s spirit (hic!). I like reading; my dad likes driving. My mom likes reading; my brother likes debating. This is despite the fact that we belong to the same biological family.
Is everyone in a biological family the same?
Now extrapolate this to people not belonging to your family. If we were intended to be same/ similar, we would have been made clones. You and I would look the same, talk the same, and behave the same.
While life would have been simpler that way, it is not exactly the rosiest of propositions. Across ages, dissent has been the power behind change. Someone somewhere disagreed and tried to change things.
S/ he found supporters as well as detractors. So what did the detractors do? They acknowledged the change but didn’t accept it. As a result, we got different schools of thought.
As a corollary to this, people who do not accept differences, expect others to behave the same way. Excellent thought except that we are all thinking individuals and can’t blindly follow.
Do you expect others to behave the way you do?
If you want ‘obedience’, get a dog. (p. s. they have a mind of their own too.)
P.P.S. I’m myself somewhere on this journey; having my failure moments but, hopefully, moving towards a better understanding.
