I haven’t written a blog for a while for various reasons and then when I was ready to, there was a global event that meant I felt it wasn’t quite right to blog at that time.
However, over the last few days we have seen that global event (the death of Queen Elizabeth the second) spark many reactions in people, and social media has essentially had a meltdown of both pro-monarchy and anti-monarchy commentators.
Now, I’m not going to comment on the death of Her Majesty, my views or the views of others because that’s a personal view and sometimes best kept to yourself!!!
There are also lots of other things going on in my world and yours maybe, where we see people making it “all about them”.
Here are my thoughts and a viewpoint on this;
Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus taught us to to react to others rudeness, selfishness and actions.
“another person will not do you harm unless you wish it; you will be harmed at just that time at which you take yourself to be harmed.” Epictetus
We were also taught that revenge or hate is not the best reaction. To respond with kindness is a better way and at times will be unexpected by the other person. If you understand that their rudeness, selfishness or actions are possibly a mask for something else then the only way to respond is with kindness.
Now, on social media this can be impossibly hard and lengthy and you will feel like Sisyphus pushing the stone uphill only for it to fall back down again when you reach the top.
Unfortunately, on social media, in life, in work, there are many stones that you can try to push uphill but they will continually want to go to the bottom again. These stones or people may enjoy the grind, enjoy the climb and enjoy the fall back down.
Why?
Because it can be all about them, they can be the ones with the attention, the focus and the reactions of others.
Our challenge is to see this for what it is and to not react but to portray some kindness, some tolerance and some understanding.
I’m not religious but in the Bible proverbs 23 tells us: ‘Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the good sense of your words’
There’s also a view that it’s better to abstain from giving your view if you are not fully knowledgeable on the subject.
Maybe we can reflect on these two things when passing comment or opinion on Twitter and Facebook?
Remember there isn’t a stupidity filter on social media.
Now the whole point of this meandering post is this:
If you are the one who thinks it’s all about you and you are the hard done by one then think again. There is always someone in a worse position than you. If you feel someone has harmed you then you can choose how to react. You could choose not to post that tweet or that Facebook comment. You could keep your own council. You could move towards kindness instead of anger, towards empathy instead of hate, towards understanding instead of conflict.
These are not new views or a sudden epiphany by me, this is ancient wisdom written in many religious texts, many philosophical writings and faiths.
“He is wise who doesn’t grieve for the things he doesn’t have, but rejoices for the things he does have.” –Epictetus
Leading into the fire 