It’s not the load that breaks you…. it’s the way you carry it. – Sandi Bachom
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motivational quote
“I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.” - Booker T. Washington
One of my pet peeves is hatred. The crazy thing is, I don’t just cringe when I see one person hating another one. I don’t just feel uncomfortable around someone who hates people who look, love, or believe differently from them. And I don’t just want to throw things when people show hatred toward animals.
I’m ill at ease in the company of any sort of hatred. Sure, I know I carry it too far – I call it my Mary Poppins complex and I’ve carried it too far to put it down now.
My most extreme anger and disgust is, of course, saved for those who hate and harm children, other individuals, and animals. I always wonder, “Who do haters think they are?!”
Think about it this way. Everything’s relevant. If any of us hate someone we feel is “beneath us” (whether it’s in intelligence, wit, charm, looks, money, power, etc..) – do we not realize that there are those out there who have more on the ball than us? Would we want to be on the receiving end of their ridicule or snarls? Would we want them to talk down to us or make fun of us? Would we want them to snap at us if we were to ask a simple question or berate us if we made a mistake?
No one is perfect and, make no mistake about it, no one has the right to hate anyone else.
I once wrote a post in which I said that we shouldn’t hate other people – under any circumstances. I heard from a woman who listed about 20 types of people she hated. When I said that we never know what others have gone through to get to where they are, she got so mad that I’m pretty sure I joined the list. She wanted no part of anything that resembled compassion and seemed to cringe at the thought of loving others. In the end, I asked her if she realized how hard she was fighting for HATE. She said, “Yes I do.”
So, I hope she’s happy being hateful.
That’s the thing. Since my daughters were old enough to talk, I’ve always taught them to find as few foods, colors, books, and so on that they claim to hate. They were weaned on the Mary Poppins Complex.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it as long as I’m able to write, type, speak, or gesture: The more things we hate – the more hate resides inside of us. At the risk of sounding like a First Grade Reader….. Hate is ugly. Love is beautiful.
Booker T. Washington is one of my personal heroes. He was a brilliant, brilliant man with an incredible mind. Unfortunately, he lived during a time when the color of his skin brought out a lot of hatred and ugliness from people with not so incredible minds.
When I think of the nasty looks, hateful comments, and cruel injustices that Booker T. Washington and other blacks had to endure during this period of time, it makes me want to cry a river. You and I will probably never know the sort of hatred Mr. Washington saw first-hand. But he wasn’t bitter and he wasn’t filled with anger and hatred.
Rather, he said, “I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.”
The next time you feel hatred rising in your heart toward a co-worker, neighbor, driver in front of you (!!!), family member, etc – remember Booker T. Washington’s words and ask yourself, “Is it worth belittling my own soul?”
Not even the worst driver on earth is worth that, and I was nearly hit by her this morning.
I’ll leave off with excerpts of an article written by author Sloan Wilson (“The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit“):
A long while ago, I had a job I didn’t like and a boss who seemed to me to be a major menace. For months I would come home and tell my wife about the horrible new attrocities he had committed.
“I really hate this guy,” I often said to my wife, and when she remonstrated, I added, “He’s just a guy who was made to hate!”
It was right after one of these stormy sessions that I happened to read these words, “I will allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.” I have never been so strongly affected by one sentence, for in a flash it showed me how small and mean I had become.
At just about this time I began to work harder at my writing during evenings and weekends. When I stopped wasting energy on hatred, I found I had lots more strength for better things. – Sloan Wilson, “On Hate” (Words to Live By, 1956)
“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” – Albert Einstein
This beautiful face belongs to Ann Nixon Cooper. She is better known, I suppose, as the Oldest American Voter. The southern lady hails from Atlanta, Georgia, and is currently the one person I’d most want to sit down and talk with.
Not just because of the history that she has lived through and not just because of her longevity. Sure, I’d love to hear her first-hand accounts of the different Presidential terms she’s seen, the wars, the moments that shaped our nation and our world. And I would hang on her every word when she spoke of her favorite foods and drinks. Obviously the lady is onto something the experts only think they know.
After all, she’s outliving all of them!
The main reason I’d love to sit down and visit with her is her smile and her attitude. She exudes the warmth, strength, charm, and loveliness that you’d expect from a southern lady.
When asked about the secret to her longevity, Ann Nixon Cooper gave us our quote of the day: “Being Cheerful had a lot to do with it I’ve always been a happy person, a giggling person – a wide-mouthed person!”
Oh, I love her all right.
Photo Credit: The History Makers
Keep Calm and Carry On Art Print
Buy at AllPosters.com
I use a marker board in our home office to write little motivational quotes, thoughts, facts, and affirmations on. Each member of my family walks by the board a couple of thousand times a day, so I want to make the trip worthwhile!
The words currently on the board are the same ones on this great art print: Keep Calm and Carry On.
I think this makes a perfect, perfect affirmation to keep in your pocket with you at all times. Whether you’re in class, at work, or in traffic (have mercy), this one’s a keeper.
A year from now, you may wish you’d started today. – Karen Lamb
Okay, okay. Enough already. No more looking back at things we wish we’d done differently in 2008. That ship has sailed and is becoming smaller and smaller on life’s horizon. No need standing on the shore watching it, is there? Let’s focus on where we want to be in 2010 and let’s focus on who we want to be in 2010. Get a clear picture of precisely what and who that is, then find a way to make it happen.
“At the center of your being you have the answer; You know who you are and you know what you want.” – Lao Tzu
Sometimes we look everywhere for the answer, as it lies waiting to be found – inside us. Click HERE for more affirmations as well as thoughts about… well, thoughts.
A Winner will find a way to win. Winners take bad breaks and use them to drive themselves to be that much better. Quitters take bad breaks and use them as a reason to give up. It’s all a matter of pride. – Nancy Lopez, LPGA Hall of Fame Golfer
Hermessianex was a Greek poet who lived so long ago that Christ wasn’t even born yet. In fact, he lived about 400 years before His birth.
I’ve searched for information about Hermessianex high and low, but apparently this is all we know about him: He was Greek. He was a poet.
I became interested in him after I read (and loved) one of his quotes: “As Within, So Without.” The man didn’t mince words, did he?
Many of us, whether we’re parents, teachers, self help publishers, coaches, or saviors of the world use a multitude of words about attitude, character, and self worth. I, personally, have logged endless hours of talking with my daughters over the years as well as written long-winded posts and articles. Blah blah blah blah coffee blah blah blah chocolate blah blah blah polar bears…. (I do me so well.)
We point out the fact that we become what we think about. We harp on the fact that our habits make us who we are. We most definitely drive home the importance of having a positive attitude. We whip out every conceivable power verb and colorful modifiers we can think of.
Must make the point known. Must make the point known. We are to the world what we are to ourselves…
While we’re talking in circles, the simple, beautiful truth rests in history. Four words say everything we’ve tried to say – and say it so much better.
As within, so without.
Thank you, Hermessianex. We all need those words. All 4 of them.
“When you get the chance, go for it. You can’t accomplish anything worthwhile if you inhibit yourself.” – Oprah Winfrey, O’s Big Book of Happiness
