Rules of Living #6: Kindness and Respect

I read a newspaper article today that really freaked me. It was the guy who was torturing cats, and there was this grisly photo of a kitten with a protruding eyeball! What kind of sick, deranged person does this, I’m not sure. But it certainly tells me that it is not acceptable. I think hundreds of people will agree with me that you treat all living things with kindness and respect. After all, what did that kitten do? Kill his family with a meow? In a world with people who have this kind of mental model – that it’s ok to hurt something or someone else – we have to pay even closer attention to this rule of living.

A quote that has stuck with me for a long time is this:

“Be careful how you treat people on your way up, because you’ll never know whom you’ll meet on your way down.”

It appears to be a basic courtesy to be kind and respectful, but I think it is much more than just that. If you are in a workplace that espouses kindness and respectfulness, it will help you to grow. If you are in a workplace that thinks that cruelty and fear are the best ways to work with people, then my recommendation is to rethink your life!

In my reflecting about the rules of living, I think kindness and respect is one of the most indispensable. How do you treat people? Do you exude warmth in your heart, or do you exude coldness? Are you striving to be a good host on this planet to other humans, or are you pushing them away just because you think they aren’t worth the effort?

Be mindful – a good deal of kindness can only come when you have realized who you are and to recognize that different people have different ways of thinking. So you have to be clear that just because they disagree with you doesn’t mean they dislike you or hate you. Respect is an indication of the level of trust you have in yourself rather than something you give others. If you basically respect everyone, your own personal ego is held in check. You know there will be people better and richer and more intelligent than you, and that you are just one of billions of beings on this planet. You’ll treat people with a sense of respect without having to degrade yourself.