The Golden Rule Revisited

Haven't we all heard the Golden Rule?  I mean, it has it's own special name that everybody (in the West [civilization--as opposed to the Eastern Civilization]) recognizes and understands and could tell it to you in some way shape or form.  The Eastern World says it differently than the Western World, I'm sure, but every person on Earth knows the same things because we were all taught them by the same Man or I could say God, or to pay homage to Søren Kierkegaard I could write, the God-man.  Every man and woman should love his neighbor as himself and herself.

Let's dig a little deeper though, into this phrase that is more often than not treated as a pithy fortune-cookie idiomatic phrase!

What would happen if everybody treated everybody else as themselves?  Would you get mad at yourself for your own poor driving down the highway?  Think about it...  Do you excuse others for the way they drive, reminding yourself that he or she might have had exactly the same poor night's sleep as you have, or telling yourself that when you have a headache your reflexes might not be as sharp as they would be otherwise.

Would you get do mad or even irate at yourself for having said that?  If you think you just might have, then you should be mad at yourself quite a bit more than you already are, right?

Another way to understand the rule is to know that the reason it is so easy and natural for you to "forgive" yourself every day (and all day long maybe...) is because you think you know yourself pretty well and know all the reasons, problems, tendencies, illnesses, history, education, and family that you have, right?  Well, why not treat others as if you are just as intimately acquainted with their reasons, problems, tendencies, illnesses, history, education, and family as you are with yourself.

Can't you give him or her a break at least as often as you wish someone would give you a break?

What would happen if everybody treated everybody else as themselves?  Let's think about it but then let's do it!  Who wouldn't like to be treated the same way that they treat themselves?

JPS