Thursday, March 27, 2014

Kindness and Honesty

My responsibility to all others is to be honest and kind. Never one without the other. Honesty without kindness is cruelty. Kindness without honesty is being fake. I do not believe in this idea of being “nice”. “Nice” to me is simply doing what others either expect or want me to do. “Oh, that is not a nice thing to say” or “Be nice”. What does this really even mean?
If I know that my intention is not to be unkind or to be dishonest I am not going to be worried about how you perceive me. That is your own perception of what I said or who I am. I have no control over that perception. It belongs to you and I have no desire whatsoever to change it. I am not under the delusion that I can “make” you like me or like what I do or what I feel. My responsibility is simply to deliver my truth and my feelings in a kind and honest manner.
I want you to like me. I really do. However, I will not sacrifice my truth to allow you to be comfortable or to have you perceive me in another way. If who I am fits into your idea of what “nice” is then you can say that I am “nice”.


In my opinion, the world is suffering from too much “niceness” and not enough kindness and honesty.

I prefer to not be a part of it.

EXCERPT from "A Prescription For Contentment", by Dr. Crewson Andrew Martin
Copyrighted material; use only with permission

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