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. ;)