A Little Bit Them - A Little Bit Us

My Week #26 Submission

I awoke today with this prompt on my mind. But I refuse to go where this song first took me — those days are not any I want to revisit. The fact is, we always have a choice. We don’t have to let others, or the situation dictate our response.

Why should I be kind, fair, or respectful when no one else is?

“It’s unfortunate that this happened. No. It’s fortunate that this has happened, and I’ve remained unharmed.” -Marcus Aurelius

I think what he’s saying is that we are only harmed, if we allow our character to be affected by this circumstance or situation standing in front of us. We have a choice, and if we choose not to let go of our principles — if we stand on the virtues that we believe in, then our character remains intact.

It may seem as though so much of our lives are controlled by others around us. And yes, that’s true to a certain extent. Unless we’re alone on some desert island right now, we will be at the mercy of others. We will be criticized. We will be disrespected. But we will only be harmed if we respond in a like manner. If we hold to our own virtues, we remain unharmed.

We cannot control what others say, do, or think — even about us. But we do control how we respond.

I used to fight fire with fire. Well let me tell you, that only leads to a blaze that quickly goes from manageable, to out of control. And the next thing you know, everything is burnt to the ground.

I try not to fight fire with fire any longer — as a matter of fact, I try not to fight at all. But if I must, I’ll be bringing water in the form of love and patience. I’ll hit the Pause Button, and calmly assess the situation. I’ll ask myself, is this how I really want to respond? Or am I just caught up in the heat of the blaze?

It’s not easy to stay disciplined — sometimes the urge to respond to a nasty comment with an even nastier comment, can be quite overwhelming. But the tranquility that comes from sidestepping such a response, is well worth it.

“The Tranquility that comes when you stop caring what they say, or think, or do. Only what you do.” -Marcus Aurelius

The thoughts and actions of others only affect us as much as we let them. And remember, that goes both ways! By choosing the more virtuous path, we in turn have the opportunity to influence others.

For, just as we are A Little Bit Them, they’re A Little Bit Us, too.

Good Vibes Only🤠🤙

---

I Hope this’ll inspire you to make your own submission to this week’s writing prompt, A Little Bit Me A Little Bit You, by the Monkees!

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it and clicking that ❤ button, and I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Oh and if you’re an email reader, just hit reply — I want to hear from you too!

Don’t like commitments, but still want to support my writing? You can make a one-time contribution here.

---

Here are three essays from my blog that I think really pair well with this one.🥂

I learned it myself

Who's Values?

The Philosopher King

Yes, I’m slowly learning to use AI — albeit very cautiously. The cover image was created on ChatGPT.