Everyone is too much.
I can relate. And it sucks. It's also a blessing. Confused? Yeah, me, too. For most of my life. It takes a long time to come to terms with that. To balance out the weakness it creates with the strength. It can hurt me a lot if I'm too giving, and it can hurt me a lot when I'm taking too much advantage of it.
Empathy and consideration.
Let's start with that. Those too abilities unlock the potential to see the world from many perspectives, if not all perspectives. Which is a powerful tool, as you can see the world how the person in front of you sees it, and use that knowledge to your own benefit. Which hopefully is aligned with what you believe to be everyone's benefit. Relating to the other is not one-sided, at least in most cases. The other person will feel related to and open up, anyway, if not trained in the skill of manipulation (through life or education or whatever), and will open up, giving you the advantage.
To do whatever...
Good or bad. One of my goals in life is to be as least judgmental as I can be, in the colloquial way. I do judge, we all do, all the time. But I'm referring to the way of judging people prematurely, only from my perspective. If I want to be coherent, I have to consider theirs. How they see the world. Nothing black and white, but all the grey. Understand where they're coming from.
Not an excuse.
That's not the idea. But there are good reasons why upbringing and background are taken into consideration in many judiciary systems. Why "killing" isn't just that, but has a thousand nuances, depending on the circumstances. And to be able to judge that, it is important to relate to each and every person involved. See the world how they do.
It's overwhelming.
That, too. It's also obstructive in many cases, and not always practical in real life. Relating too much can lead you into doing too much for others, and not enough for yourself. It can hurt a lot. Everyone is suffering, as is the nature of life. And especially coming from a country with less obvious suffering to one that is more obvious, based on the perception acquired in the former country.
Relativity...
Everything is relative. Relating to a person does imply that, too. It's something that I see being lost these days. People become more ego-centered. My set of values is the only one that has value, so everyone has to follow them to be "good". It doesn't work that way. That kind of thinking is what destroy community and society. We need the diversity, both for good and bad. To know what we don't want as a community, and what we do want.
We need to relate.
It helps me, personally. I can relate to Lily's mom. I know where she comes from, why she does what she does. How it all makes sense in her head. It doesn't make her actions better. But it helps me to handle the situation more rationally, and not be as affected by it. And that's what I wish for everyone. Yes, the actions are important. But the circumstances are, too. The deeper we dig, the closer we get to the real problem. And as we know from history:
Treating the symptoms is not the same as curing the disease.
What are your thoughts about this topic? Please feel free to engage in any original way, including dropping links to your posts on similar topics. I'm happy to read (and curate) any quality content that is not created by LLM/AI.
Post written for the #weekend-engagement by @galenkp inviting us to answer selected questions in the Weekend Experiences community each week.
This is my response to:
2/ What type of people do you have trouble relating to and why?
Thank you for reading!