Respect: You've Gotta Give It to Get It

I totally agree with this particular meme. That's why I've shared it on Facebook more than once, but what really irks me about many individuals whom I've encountered personally throughout the course of my life is that they often seem downright obsessed with being "disrespected," to the point that they always seem to be whining and/or preaching about this perceived lack of respect towards them. Because in fact, some of those individuals are themselves some of THE most disrespectful people I've personally ever known.

In other words, I've come to the sad conclusion that a lot of people tend to be the most fixated on what it is that they themselves may lack, or otherwise fail to fully comprehend. Thus, if you want respect from others, you may just have to conduct yourself in a fully respectable manner to begin with. Ever think about it that way?

As the old saying goes, "respect is earned." And that means that no one should automatically demand or otherwise expect an inordinate amount of "respect" simply because they happen to (just for a couple of good examples) wear (or have at some point in their past worn) a particular uniform, or just happen to be numerically old enough to assume that they are now in fact well and truly "wise." I mean... maybe you're not really any smarter than you ever were. Maybe you just got old.

So maybe you've simply grown to be too elderly, thick-headed, and stubborn, so that most people just don't really want to take the time and trouble to argue with you. That doesn't mean you've necessarily become wiser with age than everyone else, but rather, it may just be that you never actually learned to give enough respect to others (all those you now deem less intelligent than hoity-toity old you) to have genuine respect returned to you based purely on your own merit (and not just your physical age).

So when it comes to others not giving us what we might feel is "proper respect," perhaps we shouldn't fixate on the matter quite so much. Instead, maybe we ought to be more introspective, in order to hopefully ascertain why it is that so many people over the course of our lives may have supposedly "disrespected" us to begin with.

Yes, encountering especially rude people who don't treat others with the customary "proper respect" really is a genuine phenomenon which is sadly quite common in everyday life. In fact, I myself have been "disrespected" quite a number of times over the years, but that just makes me wonder why all those people treated me that way to begin with.

Was it something I'd said? Was it something I'd done? In fact, having thought about it a great deal over the course of my life, I've come to the conclusion that, in most cases, it often wasn't what I said or did so much as it was the way I looked (aka my physical appearance or personal presentation), or the fact that just by being in the same room, I somehow posed a perceived threat (real or imagined) to the person or persons who suddenly and quite arbitrarily decided to treat me so very "disrespectfully."

In other words, the prettiest girl in the class isn't necessarily always automatically respected by absolutely everyone for the sheer fact that she's especially easy on the eyes. Sure, all the boys who vie for her attention may indeed fall all over themselves to treat her with a great deal of respect (because they see her as desirable, or otherwise useful and/or worthy), but that doesn't mean that all the rest of the girls who aren't quite so attractive don't hate her stinking guts simply BECAUSE she's beautiful.

Me? I was never physically "the prettiest" in my class, but what I did have, and still do, was/is readily identifiable talent and creativity in abundance. And that has apparently often made me a very big threat to some people, who sadly, probably just lack confidence in themselves, and never had the benefit of having anyone (or not enough people, perhaps) to point out the gifts that they themselves received from the Good Lord above.

Either way, if you really think about it, whether any of us like it or not, we all get "disrespected" sometimes throughout the course of our lives. But it's the particularly arrogant, entitlement seeking people, who think that they are somehow owed an inordinate amount of attention, or social power, wealth, and/or influence, that irk me most of all.

In other words, if you want me to pay attention to you, if you really want me to "follow" you on social media or whatever, and pretend that you are indeed "somebody" special, well... how about you do something more than just show up to the party, acting like somebody should have rolled out the red carpet just as soon as they saw you enter the room. In fact, that kind of attitude is "Don't you know who I am?" in spades.

Actually, yes, I do know who you are. It's just exactly who the hell you THINK you are that has me flummoxed, amazed, and absolutely gob smacked at your sheer, unabashed, unbridled, blatant arrogance. Bottom line; arrogance and/or ignorance shouldn't automatically garner respect, but the way we may (consciously or unconsciously) interact with others most certainly should. ;)

Isolation is often the greatest of teachers

Society is often a greater contaminate than is commonly recognized. Thus, the most formative of times are often when one is forced to face the world all alone, because isolation is often the greatest of teachers. Fear not solitude, for good old Mother Earth will always keep right on spinning 'round and 'round, all without our help, input, or approval. Just think of all the trees that stand as silent, solitary sentinels deep within the heart of forests far from prying, judgmental human eyes. Yet still each and every one is part of a much greater, infinitely interconnected ecosystem.

The Humblest of Things

For we all are but the humblest and most insignificant of things, fashioned from the dust. Yet it is from the very dust that, this day and every day, that I rise to the greatest of challenges. For it is in the knowing that I am nothing, and that ultimately, I therefore have nothing to lose, that I become truly mighty.

The Real Racists

People who somehow manage to make everything about "race" are actually the real "racists." All the rest of us are just ordinary people with pretty much the same set of basic human foibles and all too human problems that everybody else just plain tends to have. Real "racists," therefore, are actually people who are obsessed with using skin color and/or ethnicity to control and dominate others. So beware, because this particular Will don't play that game. Not with anyone.

Pretty Profiles, Pretty Pictures, and a Few Plug Nickels, Too

You see, there's a point one gets to when you just don't really care anymore, whether someone "friends" or "unfriends" you on social media. Because these days, that's just how it works. Meaning that the whole paradigm of friendship essentially no longer means nearly as much as it used to anyway. Well, not on social media, it doesn't.

In fact, what really matters the very most in this Life is who you can actually touch. No, not necessarily "touch" in the sense of being able to physically reach out and embrace someone or other, but rather, whose Life you may be able to affect in a positive and meaningful way. Or perhaps even someone who may be able to help you yourself in that regard in return. You know, when the chips are down. When you, or they, literally have no one else to turn to.

Because you see, having a big old "friend list," full of all those... those names... the names of people that one could not even possibly even speak to on a regular basis (or they to you) doesn't make anyone rich, powerful, or even necessarily all that influential. Heck! Some of your "friends" may even be laughing at you. And not the good kind of laughing, which is with you, and not at you.

And that right there is often just how "social" media interactions, and most classic human acquaintanceships, really just plain work anyway, silly! You see, even and especially nowadays, with the big, fancy Internet, people can easily "follow," "hide" from, or even outright ignore your posts and shared content at any time of their choosing. They can even block you altogether, and that, as they say, is that. Out of sight, out of mind.

Or... they might also just humor you, by "liking" every other thing you post. Psst! All of us fancy "connected" folks, we're all sitting behind "personal" computers, you know. So nobody is really beholden to anybody else. And nobody really has to give a crap about absolutely anything anyone says or does. Well... unless you're in someone's immediate family, or you happen to be a co-worker or something of that nature.

So you see, these days, people don't even have to "unfriend" you to actually kinda... well, hate your stinking guts. Or even just dislike you. In most cases, just like a good old fashioned "plug nickel," they'll be more than happy to keep you around, just in case they happen, at some point down the line, to find an old fashioned slot machine that will readily accept you in trade.

Believe me, you'll be just fine down in someone's trusty back pocket, with all the more or less useless lint and spare petty change that can be discarded on a mere whim at any time of their random choosing. And that's just where many of us tend to sit. Until, or even if that is, someone in your social media circle should ever have need of you. And yes, it really is a sad way to look at social media "friendship," but that's just how most human relationships often really tend to be, whether you're a relative, a lifelong friend, etc., etc., etc., notwithstanding.

And then, sadly, it's even worse for those folks who don't even have that much going for them. They don't even have blood relatives who even like them enough to have anything at all do with them whatsoever in the first place. So when everybody else is getting together for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or being invited to a wedding... well, there's so much of a nasty feud brewing in the very bloodlines of the so-called "family," that some people just don't ever get invited to share that "fellowship" anyway. And worse yet, there are even some you're afraid to invite yourself!

And that is how some people end up on the street. Or in the gutter. On the side of the road. All the people all the rest of us lucky ones tend to have to try to ignore on our way to work. Or, even when we're out Christmas shopping, looking for pretty papers and pretty ribbons of blue. You know, for all those important people on that big, fancy, all consuming "social" list of names. And names. And names. And quite often, not very much else of any true and lasting substance.

But I guess that's just people for ya.

If no good deed goes unpunished

If it is true that, "No good deed goes unpunished," then surely, no good intention is left underappreciated, misunderstood, or outright rejected and scorned.

Choose your battles carefully

Choose your battles carefully, and your opponents even more so, for one never knows when a frequent foe might suddenly become the most powerful of allies; especially when confronted by a mutual enemy.