Ego

Last Sunday Jim Paredes wrote a nice piece in the Star about ego and how we should handle ours given varied situations so that we don't "drown" in it. Worth reading, indeed.

Posted in my office is a simple white bond paper with a quote from T.S. Eliot which says "Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm but the harm does not interest them."

I agree with him and so if you happen to drop by my office you will see this quote on the wall. This tends to sober me up sometimes when I am confronted with a situation where "feeling important" can be very tempting.

In this blogsite I have included a daily quote and today it comes from Leo Tolstoy of "War and Peace" fame, reminding us of the reality of threat and intimidation that is resorted to often by many. He says "All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do".

Forcing others to do what they do not want to do is probably an expression of the need to feel important - at whatever cost to others.

Below the T.S. Eliot line is another quote that I found somewhere. It says "I am not responsible for what others do or say. I am only responsible for how I react to what others do or say. I practice this daily".

Yes, this is always a good thought for the day, whatever day it is. We cannot control what other people do or say. We can only control how we react to what others do or say.

But observe - many people can't really do this. It takes a lot of practice. A lot of listening. And tons of patience.