Society tells me to pick out the bad things about people.
The media teaches me to pick out the bad things about people.
Politics teaches me to pick out the bad things about people.
Even some of the conversations that I have with my closest friends are nothing more than us ranting about someone else. (And then ironically we'll turn around and have a conversation with that person and rant about yet another person.)
I think there's no doubt that it's just human nature for us to find the negatives of everyone else to make us feel more secure. But what good does that really do us in the end? It covers up our own insecurities and prevents us from ever working those out.
Now, I think there are appropriate times to vent about certain people if they've directly done something to hurt you or make you angry. That's fine, and we need friends to help us feel better about that. However, I wish that all of us - including myself - could just take a breather and look for grace in the people around us. Just because we heard a rumor about someone from his or her best friend's friend doesn't mean that we need to collectively bash them to make us feel better.
It's just not healthy in the long run. And sometimes the healthiest thing is not easy to do.
I mean, willing myself to not eat a cupcake is pretty tough to do...
I agree Tyler! I think that we are all programmed in a way to look for something about another person that doesn't make them as good as us. Ya know? Sometimes I nag about another person, because maybe they said something that rang a little more true than I intended. I heard a saying once that said, "The things that make us most angry, are the things that ring true."
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