Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2006. Mattie was four years old. This photo was really quite precious. Why? Because in Mattie's hand was a photo he took off the refrigerator. In fact this photo is still up on our refrigerator. It depicts Mattie as a toddler, holding onto our coffee table. The reason I took this particular photo was I wanted Mattie to see how much he grew. To do a height comparison check, from one photo to the other. Mattie got a kick out of this! A photo in a photo! You can see his great big smile and how pleased he was with the process of what was taking place that day.
Quote of the day: When you run into someone who is disagreeable to others, you may be sure he is uncomfortable with himself; the amount of pain we inflict upon others is directly proportional to the amount we feel within us. ~ Sydney J. Harris
I picked tonight's quote on purpose. I had an interaction today with a MOST disagreeable individual. The irony is this person caught me off guard because I had a simple request for her about an event I am planning for the Foundation. I use her services all the time and in a way her establishment is a known quantity to me. So when she was disrespectful and discourteous tonight, Peter was in shock. Of course when you tick me off, I naturally express my displeasure in writing. Which is what I did as soon as I got home!
But the bigger question is what causes disagreeableness!? I think Harris' quote gets at the heart of it..... we have the need to INFLICT pain upon others because we are feeling this pain within ourselves. This pain can look different for each of us, it can be caused by different things, and who we feel we need to inflict our wrath upon also varies.
Tonight the individual I interacted with was giving me a lecture that things can't always be guaranteed despite arranging them with a company and basically she was telling me that my expectations were too unreasonable. Mind you I am PAYING for a service. Moving passed her illogical nature, I told her I knew ALL TOO WELL THAT NOTHING IN LIFE WAS GUARANTEED. I got off my soap box because I came close to giving her a story about childhood cancer, but I saved my breath because I did not want her disagreeable nature to feed into my own.
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