Received this as one of the forwards ...
"A car ahead was moving like a turtle and not giving me way in spite of my continuous honking! I was on the brink of losing my cool when I noticed the small ticker on the car's rear - "Physically challenged; please be patient."
And that changed everything! I immediately went calm and slowed down. In fact, I got a little protective of the car and the driver. I reached work a few minutes late, but it was OK.
And then it stuck me. Would I have been patient if there was no sticker? Why do we need a sticker to be patient with people? Will we be more patient and kind with others if people had labels pasted on their foreheads? Labels like - "Lost my job", "Fighting cancer", "Going through a bad divorce", "Suffering emotional abuse", and more like these.
Everyone is fighting a battle we know nothing about. The least we can do is be patient and kind. Let us respect the invisible labels."
And the ruminations started, reminding me of an acquaintance. While everything else was going fine ... exchange of messages, going for dinner together, husband behaving in the same old bohemian self, wife behaving like the same old submissive self. However, we gradually observed that the lady started behaving weird ... limited communication, no customary messages and a long list of never-before's. The one-sided no-communication gradually turned into a cold war. A lot of insinuations and guess work followed. And one fine day we came to know the couple is on the verge of splitting. We were blind to this label.
A perfect example of you noticing a set of labels which were completely over-shadowing the real labels. When and how do we find out which are the real labels?
For those blessed souls who do not have any of these labels, or not a big one but a few small ones, what does it take to realize the essence of what is said above? While everybody thinks of his / her label as bigger than that of the other person, who gets to decide which label is the biggest? Isn't it best to give everyone else a benefit of doubt, and move on?
"A car ahead was moving like a turtle and not giving me way in spite of my continuous honking! I was on the brink of losing my cool when I noticed the small ticker on the car's rear - "Physically challenged; please be patient."
And that changed everything! I immediately went calm and slowed down. In fact, I got a little protective of the car and the driver. I reached work a few minutes late, but it was OK.
And then it stuck me. Would I have been patient if there was no sticker? Why do we need a sticker to be patient with people? Will we be more patient and kind with others if people had labels pasted on their foreheads? Labels like - "Lost my job", "Fighting cancer", "Going through a bad divorce", "Suffering emotional abuse", and more like these.
Everyone is fighting a battle we know nothing about. The least we can do is be patient and kind. Let us respect the invisible labels."
And the ruminations started, reminding me of an acquaintance. While everything else was going fine ... exchange of messages, going for dinner together, husband behaving in the same old bohemian self, wife behaving like the same old submissive self. However, we gradually observed that the lady started behaving weird ... limited communication, no customary messages and a long list of never-before's. The one-sided no-communication gradually turned into a cold war. A lot of insinuations and guess work followed. And one fine day we came to know the couple is on the verge of splitting. We were blind to this label.
A perfect example of you noticing a set of labels which were completely over-shadowing the real labels. When and how do we find out which are the real labels?
For those blessed souls who do not have any of these labels, or not a big one but a few small ones, what does it take to realize the essence of what is said above? While everybody thinks of his / her label as bigger than that of the other person, who gets to decide which label is the biggest? Isn't it best to give everyone else a benefit of doubt, and move on?
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