An Addendum to My Rant

Well, well, well ... I've gotten quite a lot of feedback concerning my previous post, and a ton of questions asking if I would share what pushed me over the edge and caused me to pen my "every single person deserves to be treated with respect and honor and dignity and kindness and appreciated simply for being who they are" rant. I'm asked many questions that I choose not to answer publicly in my blog, but tonight I feel as though I should attempt to give a bit of explanation as to what sparked my rant last night, my rant from my heart, by the way ... trust me when I say that my rant last night was very, very much from my heart.

I can't say that it was one specific action yesterday that caused me to pen the words that I did last night ... those words have been, as I wrote last night, gnawing at me for a while now. But, as is true with most of the times I've felt compelled to write about sensitive subjects, something or someone is the tipping point ... that one attitude or comment or glance or action that is the final straw, you know? And sometimes that attitude or comment or glance or action isn't directed to me but to someone else. In fact ... truth be told ... witnessing another person being treated poorly is far more likely to bring forth a rant from me than being mistreated myself. That's what happens when you spend your life believing you're a terrible person, you know ... you believe you're less than everyone else and deserve whatever lousy treatment you get, but you'll fight to the death to save another person who's being wronged.

So having said all of that ... rather than share what the tipping point was for me that prompted last night's rant, instead I'm going to leave you with this reminder ... every single person deserves to be treated with respect and honor and dignity and kindness and appreciated simply for being who they are. Period. Period. Period. It really doesn't matter what happened to precipitate my post last night, but it matters a whole heck of a lot that it made so many of you consider how you treat other people. At the end of the day when all is said and done, the only thing that really matters is the way we treat each other. Think about that the next time you behave in a way that makes another person feel like they are unworthy or invisible or not normal or unappreciated or a waste of your time or less than you in any way. Try putting yourself in that person's place for a couple of minutes and imagine how you would feel if you were treated the way you are treating them.

Have a great evening, friends, and be kind to one another. Actually ... be kind to everyone ... those you love, those you meet, those you will never see again ... just be kind. 

"Not until trouble and heartache and sorrow came into my own life could I fully comprehend the words of Ian McLaren: 'Let us be kind, one to another, for most of us are fighting a hard battle.'" --- SCM