Cesar Chavez, Co-founder of The National Farm Workers Association
“Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.”
Let’s do the definition of disrespect. This time from the Urban Dictionary: a user called “this means“ defined it as: “the act of putting someone down, trying to make them feel low, treating someone in a horrible manner, showing a person they mean less than nothing to you, a hurtful act that is both rude and ignorant towards another person’s feelings.”
Nicely done I think. That sums it up well.
Most of us belong to multiple cultures. Race, gender, religion, and myriad of other things that we each identify with makes us who believe we are. Embracing each of these makes us the complete person have become. If we are comfortable with who we are, there is no need to put someone else down who is different in their thinking and experiences.
But are you truly comfortable with who you are? Feeling the need to put others down could be an indication that you really aren’t happy or comfortable with your own identity.
Most of us can look back in history and find incidents that involve injustices perpetrated by by one cultural group on our own. This begs the question of what we personally decide to do with this information.
One of my close friend is Scottish in ancestry, while mine is mostly English. There have been times in history when the English really lowered the boom and controlled the Scots. There are many stories of torture and other acts of brutality perpetrated on them in order to maintain that control with terror.
In Europe there were centuries of conflict between Catholic and Protestant monarchs who actively persecuted each other with completely innocent people being tortured and abused on both sides, just because they had a different belief.
With these two examples is it right for my Scottish friend to hate me, or for me to hate every Catholic I see? Of course not. There is one overriding reason for me to accept and be accepted by these two groups.
I didn’t do anything of this sort to my Scottish friend, and the Catholics have never done anything to me personally. Each of us are individuals who rise and fall on our own acts, not on those of our forebears.
When we meet others, we should completely ignore what their grandfather may have done, and let them show who they are, and what they have become on their watch. We can only pay for our own sins, and can only succeed by the effort we have each put forth to make our own lives and those around us better.
There are so many wonderful people we are missing the opportunity to be friends with because of the limitations we place on those with whom we will associate. Please don’t make a snap judgments based on stereotypes. It all comes down to this: Don’t be a hater. Just don’t do it.
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Giada De Laurentiis, Celebrity Chef
“Pasta doesn’t make you fat. How much pasta you eat makes you fat.”
Volume. In this application, Dictionary.com says, a mass or quantity, especially a large quantity, of something.
Most things that are good in moderation are not so good when you go extreme with the volume. Music with too much volume can damage your eardrums, and too much of a good food can make you fat, in this case, pasta.
For the record, pasta rocks. My wife, Dee is quite the cook, and she does Italian well. Her simple spaghetti with her home made sauce is totally excellent, and when she ups the ante with chicken parmesan, it is simply out of this world. I really do battle with volume when something that good to eat is available. As a result, I am not as svelte as I used to be.
The concept is self control. According to Joyce Meyer,
“I have learned that I really do have discipline, self-control, and patience. But they were given to me as a seed, and it's up to me to choose to develop them.”
Learning to control your appetite for food, drink and other things is pretty hard to do if you really weren’t taught to do so. A lack of discipline is this area moves a little closer to the beasts, who act on instinct and impulse, and lack the human level of reason and self control. That is the major dividing line between a savage and a civilized human being.
Taking this a step further, there are many humans who have completely thrown off the shackles of self control, and have become anti social, even psychopathic. This type of human animal thinks of themselves first and foremost, with no room to spare a thought for anyone else. If they want something, obtaining it is the number one priority, and anyone who gets in the way is likely to get hurt.
A quote from Joseph P. Bradley:
“Brutes are governed by their appetites and impulses. Savages are but little removed in this respect from brutes. Brutish men and coarse natures are mostly led by their impulses, appetites and passions. The true nobility of our nature is evinced by self-control, which restrains, governs and subdues the impulses, appetites, passions and desires.”
I don’t know of many people who would like to be known as a brute. Sure, many are macho and ACT like they don’t care what others think, but the very act of being macho shows that a person is attempting to hide from others what they know to be true about themselves. They feel inadequate, and are desperately trying to keep others from finding out.
Macho persons are not dangerous like the psychopath, but are merely clumsy at being brutes and acting like they don’t care. If you can, help the macho person gain confidence, and avoid the true brutes altogether. Your life may depend on it.
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Great job!!
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate your support!
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