Harry Potter and the Thinks You Can Think (if only people would try)
This break floated by with not much for me to do but sit and think. I did a lot of thinking, too much, I would conclude, for some people's taste, as they seemed to express a dislike of my rational solutions to their problems through candid confrontation. And when I say "candid" what I mean is that they told their friends about their feelings candidly while I wasn't around, then their friends told me about it in an over-zealous manner, more than likely exaggerating half of the person's feelings. When I say "candid" I also mean "melo-dramatic". But back to the thinking aspect, because, in the topic of those who confronted me with their "candid" words, there is no thinking of any kind involved; they didn't think, which was obvious in their end of the exchange, and I didn't think much of them. I did, however, think heavily on the topics surrounding the precise argument they put up about me being a bitch. The first obvious conclusion I came up with is this: I am not a bitch. That fact was never really a concern of mine, because I've spent time in the past considering such a possibility and have, time and again, come out on the "not a bitch" side of the argument. My second conclusion is this: the issues the person doing what i like to call an "assassination attempt on my self-esteem" had were in no way my fault. It was nothing that I did to make them hate me like they did. They hated me because of their own reasons, and I tend to be a very good outlet for people's anger at themselves. After that, the following conclusions just fell into place:
1. People aren't to be trusted with anything you hold dear.
2. If people say mean things to you, they aren't trying to resolve issues, they're trying to break you down.
3. If people are trying to break you down, they're not a good enough person to worry about anyway.
4. If you can claim any ownership to success and happiness in your life, miserable people will try to take it from you.
5. Making people who try to break you down feel stupid about their hate is both a good way to help them realize how ridiculous they are being and a super way to make yourself feel better about the situation.
6. Only worry about the things people say to your face, because if they don't have enough guts to tell you to your face, you shouldn't worry about what they have to say. If that's not the case, then it's just not a big enough issue for them to tell you in person, so don't worry about it. AIM doesn't count as "to your face".
7. The most humor you can find in life comes from laughing at yourself.
The last conclusion comes from the lobster costume encounter. It still cracks me up. I think I'll remember it for the rest of my life. All these conclusions have led me to this so far:
People can be rotten, rude, uncaring, conniving, ruthless, selfish, unsympathetic and irrational, but they can also be loving and hilarious, which balances things out.
So you're left with one of two choices: Weed out those who are loving and hilarious and only trust them, or live by the following ten commandments of leadership which I read in this key club thing today that really hit home:
1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered: love them anyway
2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish or ulterior motives: do good anyway
3. If you are successful you win false friends and true enemies: succeed anyway
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow: do good anyway
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable: be honest and frank anyway
6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest minds: think big anyway
7. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs: fight for a few underdogs anyway
8. What you spend years building can be destroyed overnight: build anyway
9. People may need help, but will attack you if you do help them: help them anyway
10. Give the world the best you have and you may get kicked in the teeth: give the world the best you have anyway.
I personally think there should be an 11th one added to this. It would look like this:
11. If you put on a spandex lobster costume, people will wish you had taken pictures of yourself: change out of it anyway.