I don’t mean to intrude, or maybe I do, because I can tell you’re unhappy with each other, and that won’t do, not in the long run, and not in the short run.
Short term, you’re angry and upset, and that’s no way to get along with one another. Long term, being hateful and mad for an extended period of time can wreak havoc on your innards. You’re literally killing yourself with all this rage.
Death is a sad fact of life, but you don’t want to rush it, and wishing death on someone is a good way to speed your own demise. All those juices you stir up hating will kill you eventually, sure as the day is long.
So what I came to say is treasure life while you have it. Try to understand people who see life differently from you — and if they hate you, don’t take it personally. They don’t understand you, either.
Life is tough and then you die — it’s the same for all of us. It’s a waste of energy to go around hating, and it’s toxic energy, too, so the main person your hate harms is your own self. Do you see how foolish anger and hate are yet?
A couple of thousand years ago, this one guy went around suggesting that the two most important things are to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. Actually, he didn’t say it was a suggestion, he called them commandments. It’s not always easy — we don’t always understand God, and times like that it’s hard to love him — and don’t get me started on loving your neighbors. They can act in the most peculiar ways, or they can come after you and call you names or worse. But you know? The best thing to do at times like that is to love them anyway. They may not come around, but love heals. If they refuse to accept the healing, at least you will be more healthy.
Hey, look — the word “heal” is tucked inside the word “health.” It’s pronounced differently, but “health” must be what you get when you “heal.” Cool, huh?
I wrote a poem a few years back called “Love anyway.” Basically the message was to love no matter what the world throws at you. Stuff will still hurt, but if you return hurt with hurt, it just keeps hurting, back and forth. Love works better — really.
So that’s what I came to say: Love God and love your neighbor — and if I didn’t make it clear yet, that person you call an enemy (or maybe he claims you are his enemy) — that person is a neighbor, too. It’s not a perfect world, and it would not be a perfect world even if everyone loved God and loved their neighbors, but I’m pretty confident it would be a better world, and at the very least you will feel better if you do.
