Elephant Skin and Other Good Advice
Today I am grateful for the music of Linda Ronstadt and many other artists from the 1970's. I am also grateful for what gets through when my mind is open and listening.
I work at a faith-based school and we celebrated Easter Mass yesterday. In his sermon, the celebrant talked about the words of wisdom his father would often say to him as a teen. "Work hard. Have the skin of an elephant. Don't take yourself too seriously."
Sound advice for any and all of us. Good wisdom to apply in any and all circumstances.
I believe we could all use thicker skin. Mine has thickened with recovery and age. The society we live in, the cultural landscape surrounding us, seems to have created an overly sensitive, minimally tolerant bunch of adults. This is my opinion. You can disagree and I will hear you out. Hear me out.
Yes, people and this world can be disrespectful, mean, unfair. That will never go away. And some personal affronts need to be confronted, for sure. But many things we see and hear are not personal attacks. They are someone else's misunderstanding, pain, and frustration coming out sideways.
We can help ourselves and them more with a spirit of forgiveness, with a sense of resilience. We don't need to internalize it all. We shouldn't internalize it. If we do, we have given that other person and the negativity too much power.
In the process, we set an example for the next generation that may help more than the contentious, nasty-commenting, finger-pointing ways we see play out too often on social media and in the news.
We can each do our part today. Kind and gentle with self and others. If I can't be either, I can be quiet and/or leave.
I work at a faith-based school and we celebrated Easter Mass yesterday. In his sermon, the celebrant talked about the words of wisdom his father would often say to him as a teen. "Work hard. Have the skin of an elephant. Don't take yourself too seriously."
Sound advice for any and all of us. Good wisdom to apply in any and all circumstances.
I believe we could all use thicker skin. Mine has thickened with recovery and age. The society we live in, the cultural landscape surrounding us, seems to have created an overly sensitive, minimally tolerant bunch of adults. This is my opinion. You can disagree and I will hear you out. Hear me out.
Yes, people and this world can be disrespectful, mean, unfair. That will never go away. And some personal affronts need to be confronted, for sure. But many things we see and hear are not personal attacks. They are someone else's misunderstanding, pain, and frustration coming out sideways.
We can help ourselves and them more with a spirit of forgiveness, with a sense of resilience. We don't need to internalize it all. We shouldn't internalize it. If we do, we have given that other person and the negativity too much power.
In the process, we set an example for the next generation that may help more than the contentious, nasty-commenting, finger-pointing ways we see play out too often on social media and in the news.
We can each do our part today. Kind and gentle with self and others. If I can't be either, I can be quiet and/or leave.
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