"Church people set out to be nice people. Yet in our moments of honesty. we know much of our soul is not of God. We have negative, destructive, even violent and vengeful thoughts toward other people." (R. Rohr "Radical Grace" p. 110)
I've been told that I'm a nice guy. I suppose its true, at least some of the time. I certainly don't make it a habit of being mean or vindictive. Though as a human being there are always going to be folk that I encounter for whom it is a real struggle not to think negatively about them. What I have found though is that the longer I dwell on the negative feelings towards someone, the more negative other aspects of my life become. And it is at that point that I have learned to let it go before its too late.
And while I certainly try hard to not be negative towards people I've actually met and have to deal with on a daily basis, our culture is one that makes it hard to not get sucked into the negativity. There are more personal attacks on the web, talk media, that I begin to wonder if anyone is really happy. We have become quite a bipolar sort of society. There is no room anymore for gray. Whether its Barack Obama or Glenn Beck people seem to have strong feelings about these two and there are thousands of other examples as well.
My sense is that most people are more, to quote Shrek, "layered." But for whatever reason it seems easier to choose an extreme thought about a person and guard that opinion ferociously.
And maybe the real problem isn't so much other people. Maybe the hardest person to really be nice to, is oneself.
Blessings,
Ed
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