Week 10 – Love & Hate

I find it interesting how things tie together. Take the chapter in Og Mandino’s book “The Greatest Salesman in the World” regarding love and our feeble attempts to complete 7 consecutive days without pondering any negative thoughts as recommended by Emmet Fox in his “The Seven Day Mental Diet”. If we are able to maintain a loving outlook to everyone we meet, then the second part about negative thoughts is sort of moot. Harboring no negativity also gets us pretty close to loving everyone, however I feel that prioritizing the love side covers more territory.

7 days. Brief or eternity depends, as Andy Andrews would say, upon your perspective. 7 days on the beach sounds pretty good to me, but if I was homeless and starving it might not be my first choice of places to sleep.

Fortunately, we are in control of our attitude towards others, although many would argue that isn’t true. Forgive someone who has wronged you, and then forget you forgave. Never let the deed that crossed you enter your mind. It changes things, puts you in charge, it will make someone hold you in a higher regard. Love someone who doesn’t like you and again, it puts you in charge of the relationship.

In 1978 some idiot who was not really a friend, just a friend of a friend, climbed into my 1976 Chevy Blazer and floored the accelerator while the vehicle was in park. The engine was screaming, he was laughing, I was pissed, reached in and turned the key off. I was angry for years. Years! I would catch myself re-living the event, going through my mind how I should have handled it differently (which would undoubtedly ended in a fight where I was the underdog). My truck was fine, no damage. Nobody got hurt, but I was still angry.

I would bet $100 that he doesn’t even remember the event, nor would any of the other 5 or 6 people that were there (well, except form maybe my wife, who understood how angry it made me). So why has this bothered me all this time when he is oblivious? It is because I never forgave him.

Now I have forgiven him. It was a childish thing to do and I don’t hate my children for the childish things they have done. We are supposed to do childish things when we are children – that is how we learn. He just wasn’t as grown up as he looked.

One less thing to drag me off of my 7 day diet of no negative thoughts. Now, if I could only get rid of the rest of them……….

I love you, see you next week.

Day 68 of a 182 day journey