“Treat others as you would like them to treat you”

Often I find myself getting so frustrated at things that I want to reach out and bitchslap some people. I guess it’s a pet peeve of mine to some extent, but it touches on a larger subject.

My mother always said, when I was growing up, “Treat others as you would like them to treat you” – and as far as I know – most people have at least heard that phrase sometime in their lives from someone with some wisdom and experience behind them. So that begs the question – why don’t people bloody listen?
I lead a relatively dull life by comparison to some, perhaps, and I spend a great deal of time interacting with people online. Living in a very small town where one could count the gay people on your two hands and have fingers to spare, means that my social life has pretty much been relying on those people I meet on the internet.

Now I’m not going to go into the whole dis-functionality of that last statement – I know that’s not an ideal way to form relationships with people, but sometimes ones circumstances don’t leave you with much choice. But let’s at least be clear on this – it is well known that people on the internet are fickle, right?
However – going back to my original statement, I wonder if people wish to be treated the way they treat others online. Imagine, if you will, yourself in my shoes. I post a lot of pictures online, and videos. People like them. They drool over them, fawn over them, and often do unmentionable and unconscionable thing to their private parts over them. They are nothing more than visual stimulation. I get that – I enjoy porn too.
But in a world where sex has become easy to find – the internet is a wonderful tool for this – have we forgotten other life skills? How often do I run into someone online who wants to “chat” and then only wants to actually have a wonderful fantasy session with me and then slips back into the dark reaches of the web, never to be seen or heard from again?

We appear to have lost the ability to care, and to treat others with kindness and understanding, and sometimes in our real lives, we have forgotten how to be a good friend. Now the gay condition dictates that we think with our genitals, and want to impregnate anything we can as often as we can – but there is so much more to life.

Should we not be constantly building relationships with people – supporting one another – and not just in times of crisis? Life is too short to not indulge in the richness that makes up people.
While this all seems somewhat random – my point is this. I make effort every day to get to know people better – the people I interact with – my ‘friends’ – be they in real life or online. (And yes, people one only knows online CAN indeed be friends – good friends). But I notice so many people do not take the time to reach out and understand and know others. Sometimes, they even ignore those people who might be a rock of support and caring in a time of need when they are not in crisis.

Friendship – true friendship – means being a friend constantly and consistently – in good times and bad times – its taking the time to listen to their rants, their gushes, their stories about their day – and not because you have nothing better to do – rather because you care about the friendship, the relationship and them enough to give one thing we all ultimately don’t have enough of on this planet: time.

We all want to feel valued. We all want to feel loved. We all want to be accepted. We all want people to genuinely care about us and our lives and what happens to us. So treat those you meet as you would like to be treated. After all, you never know when engaging in conversation with an acquaintance could mean the start of a life-long friendship or more. And showing kindness to someone could actually save their life that day. Treat others as you would like to be treated, give of your time and of yourself – even if it’s just a little every day – because you can have a good or bad impact on someone else’s day by doing so. Wouldn’t you want someone to make you feel good? Wouldn’t you like someone to make you feel good? Sometimes, a little effort goes a long way.

Just for the record....

Just for the record.... this blog page is my tongue in cheek, ranty/ravy/invoking discussion blog. It is not for the feint of heart and certainly not for those easily offended. All I can say is - don't take what is said here personally or as an affront. 99% of the time, it is not about you personally.

I love to laugh. I like to be happy and share things which make me smile or think. So here is a thought.
What if people stopped for a few more moments before the post stuff online? What if we reverted back to the "old ways" of thinking. of manners? or respect for one another? What if we decided that starting today, we would treat others with the kindness and respect and caring we would like to be treated with?

I say this, because I notice how it seems to have become the norm for people to find humour in putting down others. I have noticed that some people go so far as to purposely try and stir the pot as it were - spreading rumours and false-hood, and generally making the lives of others miserable. And I don't really get the reasoning behind it. I think perhaps its just for some kind of twisted satisfaction. But what does one actually gain by doing so?

Now I'm not saying that we cant all have our own opinions about people - that's perfectly  normal - but some of these people create these opinions based upon some lie they have created or some suspicion that have. Someone online recently, a victim of such cyber bullying and false rumour spreading, feigned his own suicide to try and expose to the purveyor of these rumours how serious spreading falsehoods about someone could be. Now - granted, I may not agree with the method - but is that what it takes for people to take notice of how they are treating other people? I truly hope not.

Perhaps its just my upbringing, but I cant see the purpose in trying to put others down, or trying to point out their flaws. What do we gain by hurting others? Nothing but some kind of feeling of superiority - based upon our own insecurities?

When I was a kid, other kids used to say "don't point a finger, because there are 3 fingers pointing back at  you" - and while that may sound infantile - i think it holds water. Pointing out the flaws in someone else doesn't make us a better person - it simply points out that we have 3 times as many flaws ourselves, don't you think?

Just sayin....

Pet Peeve and the reason why I don’t have a cellphone.

Pet Peeve and the reason why I don’t have a cellphone.

Once upon a time, there was no internet. I know some of you youngsters may not believe me, but its true. There were also no cell phones. And, most importantly, until relatively recently in this timeline, there was no Facebook.

I’m relatively easy to please. I truly am. I am a nice guy, who goes about his daily stuff and does what he has to – without needing to check in everywhere I go. I notice on Facebook I am constantly barraged with people’s every action - like they are trying to rub your nose in it. Most of this is coming from their cell-phone app. So I thought to myself, in my day, what would my “check ins” look like? So here is what I think it may be like:

9:48 am Johnny Naughty checked in at The Porcelain bowl, with URINE.
9:50am Johnny Naughty checked in at the Coffee Maker, with CREAMER and SUGAR
9:51am Johnny Naughty is Smoking with HIMSELF @ The Computer
9:51am Johnny Naughty is sipping coffee and checking emails @Home
9:55am Johnny Naughty is taking a SHIT @ The Porcelain Bowl with ToiletPaper
9:59am Johnny Naughty is Lighting a Cigarette and Reading annoying statuses on FACEBOOK @home while his HAND is on his…

See what I mean? I mean seriously. WHO GIVES A DAMN? Do we need a blow by blow of everyones day?

OK OK – rant over and maybe I am over re-acting. But do people not think? I mean lets put it this way. For a moment, imagine you are single. Or – better yet – imagine you just broke up with your boyfriend. And you are sad, or lonely, or depressed. And you go to facebook because that is your habit. And what are you barraged with? Happy couples telling you how they had lunch together at such and such, or how they are cuddling on the sofa watching romantic movies and eating popcorn, or wiping each others arses in their palatial home on a tropical island.

I’m not saying don’t be happy with your relationship or proud that you managed to eat at McDonalds today without throwing up because of pink slime, I’m just saying think a little more of the impact what you say has on other people and their feelings. And – the scary thing about that last statement – is that I have said that before in other blogs. Damnit – why isn’t anyone listening?