Today's gospel reading had the golden rule in it: Do to others what you would have them do to you.
For a long time now, I've had a hunch about that golden rule. It has always struck me that perhaps in the original stating, it was descriptive and not prescriptive. "You do to other people what you would have them do to you."
The truth is more likely that the average person over the millenia has been far more practical than I. So, it's more like I don't cheat you, you don't cheat me.
But I generally think in terms like this: I want someone to challenge me, to love me enough to say hard things to me. I want someone to see where I'm stuck, especially where I can't see it, and to uncoercively coach me beyond that stuck point.
That's what I want. (Well, that and someone to cook for me.) But sometimes I "golden rule" people, doing to them what I want for me, and it just doesn't go over.
Or do people with complicated brains get an exemption here?
But let's face it. Some people really love to avoid conflict. They don't want anyone getting into conflict with them, so they don't get into conflict with others. Some people like their egos massaged, so they massage the egos of others. People want all sorts of things from others that aren't so good.
Is this the definition of thinking too much?
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