Dear all,
My, but we obsess.
Not to be Pollyanna, but we are unduly harsh, critical and snappy to one another, aren’t we?
To those we love most, we offer the least of ourselves. To those we toil with daily, we offer our best. That is to say that our colleagues and customers get our best behavior, our families and friends receive our worst.
To an employee or co-worker, we offer the benefit of the doubt, acceptable behavior and courtroom-approved comments that cross no lines. To those we say we love most, we offer our harshest judgment and our quickest tempers.
At the end of a long-day, we present our work-torn souls to those who presumably love us unconditionally without so much as a hasty apology for our poor attitudes. We snap at each other knowing the other didn’t cause our state of mind. I attack those I love and ask more of them when I know they’ve delivered more than I could ever ask, while the outside world demands much of me and delivers little in return.
We are better than all this.
Late at night, early in the morning and at the odd, pensive hours in between I consider all this and know I have not been at my best.
Whether to the clerk, the colleague or the closest to my heart, I realize when I fall short… sometimes moments and sometimes hours later. I think you do, too. I think we can do better. I think the world deserves our best.
If not me, who? If not now, when?
Oddly, there’s no specific event or misunderstanding driving this tirade: just the constant certainty that we often miss our highest calling while busily producing.
Let’s all be better in 2012. Here’s to the best year yet!
