Divide and Conquer

I think that the world is made up of two kinds of people but I'm not going to be someone who splits us up into groups, labels us and creates the sense of otherhood which will drag us all down. I do think, though, that there are a variety of interesting ways that we approach each other when we relate. If we relate.

There is an age old adage...something akin to a golden rule even that says something to the effect of "treat others the way you would want to be treated." This is an interesting approach. If we want to be given a certain reaction in a given situation, we must give others that reaction. But this flies in the face of an equally valid and time-tested truism "opposites attract." If so, then the way we treat otehrs will have to be decidedly different from how they treat others or else we will have no reason to want to be around them. Darn them and their confounding riddles.

When we go to others for sympathy, do we want sympathy? If we give sympathy, then maybe we can't (don't, shouldn't) expect it from anyone else. If we judge others, do we do so specifically because we do or do not want others to judge us? Is "Judge not lest ye be judged" a warning or a promise?

Part of the tension in life comes from unmet expectations, but those unmet expectations are often unmet because they are not expressed, or are not able to be met because a situation has been established, predicated on the expectations' not being met. I only talk to you because you won't talk back. That's what makes it work. But when I want you to talk, you don't simply because you either don't know I want that or are only here because you don't talk. Confusing, right? Imagine how I feel.

No wait, don't. Or better, forget I asked.