Ted
Breakfast Conflict
Posted on: 09/15/2013 14:38
We are all familiar with Jesus' admonition to "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." Perhaps he could have qualified that a bit with:
• but don't be too specific and
• but don't expect of others that they do unto you as you do unto them.
As a trivial example: Two children once drove their parents crazy with their constant bickering over breakfast cereal milk. The first always took the milk out of the fridge, poured it onto cereal, and promptly put the milk back in the fridge. The second would take the milk out of the fridge, pour it onto cereal, then leave it out on the kitchen table.
If the second followed the first at coming to the breakfast table, their parents heard the inevitable complaint, "Why doesn't the first just leave the milk out on the table for me. If I take it out of the fridge first, I always leave it onthe table where it's convenient for the first."
If the first followed the second at coming to the breakfast table, their parents inevitably heard the complaint, "Why doesn't the second just put the milk back in the fridge. If I take it out of the fridge first, I always put it back where it'll stay cold for the second."
Each was doing unto the other exactly as each would have the other do unto each's own self and each expected the other to do as each did unto the other. That guaranteed the conflict.
Search
Recently Active...
Comments
Beloved
Posted on: 09/17/2013 11:32
We should never assume that what meets our needs in any given situation will meet everyone else's needs. I guess that is the indiviudalness in each one of us. Sometimes it can be hard to figure out what a person needs to feel loved. Sometimes we need to ask. Sometimes we need to observe. Sometimes we need to listen. We need to make sure we are meeting the needs of others, not simply satisfying what our own needs are.
chansen
Posted on: 09/20/2013 00:01
The first child is a pedant and the second child is a thoughtless twit. The answer is to take the milk, pour it into the cereal, eat your cereal, then clear the table and put the milk away if no one else is using it.
The kids may be annoying, but the parents are dreadful.
Ted
Posted on: 10/06/2013 16:07
The first child is a pedant and the second child is a thoughtless twit. The answer is to take the milk, pour it into the cereal, eat your cereal, then clear the table and put the milk away if no one else is using it.
The kids may be annoying, but the parents are dreadful.
Thanks Chansen,
Really I am not actually looking at the children in this example; I am looking at how the Golden Rule does not always work. Each child followed the Golden Rule quite precisely, each doing unto the other as each would have the other do unto themselves, yet doing so is the source of the conflict. It is a very trivial example but, I am sure we can all think of instances in our own lives in which we have done unto another something we would have others do unto ourselves only to estrange that other person.