Sayings
I know a fair amount of clever people who have the gift of witty turns of phrase. I also scroll through FB looking at this weeks offerings from the sum it up committee. Sometimes, often in fact, I find interesting sayings and ideas, interesting to me mostly due to their sparking extensive thoughts on some subject or other. People intrigue me so much of what I look at has to do with people.
Today I read a post that was redirecting the meme of " no one can make you feel bad without your permission" pretty well. I've known people who espouse this idea who mean well and I've known people who use it to cover their own cuplibility in being an ass to someone. What irks me is not that idea per say but the attempts to summarize things that truly cannot be said in two lines. Some ideas are simply not tweet sized and the push to summerize is not the way to go.
Of course most reasonably intelligent people take the time to delve more into these ideas, not taking the surface quips as something to be taken completely on face value but not everyone does and there are defiantly times when it's harder. In the heat of someone saying something hurtful followed by a wisdom bite like they can only hurt you if you allow it is playing dirty. Yea maybe I'll take a few minutes to think that through but not right this second. This second I need the room to feel whatever I'm feeling without being scolded for it.
The thing about the aforementioned saying is that not only does it provide great cover for someone with ill intent it also seeks to name realize people in ways that aren't congruent with the way people actually are. Some folks are very sensitive and even the hint of harshness sends them spiralling, other folks are the "water off a ducks back" types. It does no one any true favours to dismiss folks who have a different reactions to negative interacts instead of empathizing, and teaching when appropriate. I know as a sensitive child my parents methods of toughening me up were counterproductive to say the least. I'd probably have been considerably less of an anxiety ridden child if my personality was worthed with instead of being ridiculed and branded wrong simply because it wasn't the same way they would react to things.
Sometimes I wonder if in our rush as a society to get the best sound bite and come up with the cleverest wittisms we forget that what we are talking about is people and ideas that are complex and done a disservice in oversimplification.
Today I read a post that was redirecting the meme of " no one can make you feel bad without your permission" pretty well. I've known people who espouse this idea who mean well and I've known people who use it to cover their own cuplibility in being an ass to someone. What irks me is not that idea per say but the attempts to summarize things that truly cannot be said in two lines. Some ideas are simply not tweet sized and the push to summerize is not the way to go.
Of course most reasonably intelligent people take the time to delve more into these ideas, not taking the surface quips as something to be taken completely on face value but not everyone does and there are defiantly times when it's harder. In the heat of someone saying something hurtful followed by a wisdom bite like they can only hurt you if you allow it is playing dirty. Yea maybe I'll take a few minutes to think that through but not right this second. This second I need the room to feel whatever I'm feeling without being scolded for it.
The thing about the aforementioned saying is that not only does it provide great cover for someone with ill intent it also seeks to name realize people in ways that aren't congruent with the way people actually are. Some folks are very sensitive and even the hint of harshness sends them spiralling, other folks are the "water off a ducks back" types. It does no one any true favours to dismiss folks who have a different reactions to negative interacts instead of empathizing, and teaching when appropriate. I know as a sensitive child my parents methods of toughening me up were counterproductive to say the least. I'd probably have been considerably less of an anxiety ridden child if my personality was worthed with instead of being ridiculed and branded wrong simply because it wasn't the same way they would react to things.
Sometimes I wonder if in our rush as a society to get the best sound bite and come up with the cleverest wittisms we forget that what we are talking about is people and ideas that are complex and done a disservice in oversimplification.
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