Entry for September 04, 2007 ~ Treat Others...

It has often been a subject of conjecture to me why people treat others the way they would not want others to treat them. Driving around, I see it all the time; I see it in the neighborhoods. I see it in store parking lots ~ in church parking lots, for that matter ~ and it goes on and on.
Disrespect, dishonesty, it doesn't matter where I go, it's everywhere.
What ever happened to the Golden Rule, 'Silence is Golden!'?? What ever happened to Our Lord's admonition, 'Treat others as you would have them treat you!'?? The First Great Commandment, 'Love God...' and the Second, 'Love Thy Neighbor...' have, to my knowledge, never been retracted by Him.
We are given so much in this country, the United States of America, that the ENTIRE WORLD wants to be us! They are practically beating down the doors to get here; they are lined up, legally or not, to get in. We have everything right here...except manners, apparently.
See, in the picture above, the cat respects the 'space' of the fish. You don't see him attacking, splashing, threatening or carrying on, do you? Well, DO YOU?!? Of course not! He has probably been trained by his master that if he so much as touches the fish, he is out the back door. And we're talking about a cat and a fish here, for Pete's sake!
But do people behave like this? Hardly...
I wrote in this Blog a while back about how people used to behave in the old days, actually the Elizabethan times...although I suspect some of it may have been thinly coated with a veneer of darker personality, for the most part, people had manners. They treated the man on the street with respect, business was conducted with honesty ~ a person's word was his or her bond ~ and the children of any family respected their elders, especially parents.
Now, it's like a free-for-all. I even know one or two couples where the husbands verbally abuse their wives without a second thought. The wives, for the most part, take it on the chin, pray under their breath, and keep silent...and this, the most intimate union between two people that there can be, is a sham.
I see it in parents who toss their children out on the street without a second glance, and children who take this treatment from their own families and simply move into the home of a friend, until the anger wears down a bit...and then, it's back home, to the same nonsense, without so much as a 'by your leave' to the family who took them in to begin with!...and forget any kind of 'thank-you' from the parents!
'Thank-you for taking my child into your home, feeding him, allowing him the use of your shower, your child's bedroom, your telephone, etc....'
Or, how about this one: 'Thank-you for never ranting at him about his parents, who were so ignorant of their own responsibilities as to never say word one against them in front of him, their own lack of consideration, their own lack of manners, their own lack of feeling toward their own children, their own shortcomings when it was time to teach their children manners, gratitude, respect!'
I'll be getting off of my soapbox in just a moment here...but this is my observation for the day.
Others drive like maniacs when I'm out on the road. They push in front of me in line at the store, at the ATM, it doesn't matter ~ the fact is, they do it.
They were never taught, I suppose, how to treat others...especially those disabled or weak, small or poor.
This has not been my best day, obviously, and I am feeling the need to rant. Others who read this may disagree or have a differing opinion, and I invite them to comment...I would dearly love to hear it!
Tell me how your day went...were you forced to stand on the street corner, holding yourself up on a walker (bad knee) while those perfectly able-bodied practically ran you down to get there before you did? How did the other drivers treat you? Did you get yelled at by anyone today? Abused? Made to feel less than an intelligent, loving human being?
Did your parents instill in you the love of your neighbor, as Our Lord requires, or did they neglect you the way my neighbors neglected their own children?
Please, I beg you, leave me your remarks. Tell me I'm wrong...