Miniature World

People can be so tiresome. First World problems have made many of us into petty, selfish individuals whose focus extends no further than our own property line. My own excuse for such behaviour was acquired at a rock concert in 2005, when Matchbox Twenty’s frontman took his solo tour on the road and stopped in Victoria. He told a story of being picked on in high school, then of making it big and returning to his hometown. Suddenly, everyone who had taunted him as a teen was asking him for tickets to the show. He paused in the telling, then told the audience, “Sometimes, it’s okay to be small.”

That’s true. Sometimes it is. At other times, though, it’s sad evidence of how mean and spiteful humans can be.

Granted, there are always three sides to a story. Everything is subject to perspective and no one can explain another’s behaviour with any kind of accuracy unless they know that person extremely well and, even then, how can we claim to know anyone else when so few of us know ourselves? Looking in the mirror is a scary thing. A lot of us dislike what looks back. Ironically, what we dislike in ourselves is often what we judge harshly in everyone else.

We simply can’t, or won’t, admit it.

I practice tolerance every day (and some days are more successful than others). I tend to forgive everyone else for “being small” more quickly than I forgive myself, but in truth, there is no blame. People everywhere are hurting. I don’t mean there is no responsibility—ye gods, we are all responsible, but again, we can’t or won’t admit it. We may wish otherwise, but the responsibility for a better world and healthy society is not next door or down the street or on your friends/family/community/employer/government.

It’s on the face in the mirror.