Learning Doesn't End in High School

Lesson for today – you do not have to respond to rudeness. Silence means something. If someone is unnecessarily rude to you, especially someone who does not know you, they are showing who THEY are, not who YOU are. There is no apology necessary because it will be repeated behavior coming from them without a doubt; so an apology would be just to save face, not because they actually meant it.

I was exposed to a person who felt the need to not only refuse to hear my side of the story, because I was not “worth” this person’s time, but also refer to me as a manipulative, conniving individual who was trying to control other people’s lives. So, I don’t feel that deserves a response. Honestly at the time I thought about sending this person a very strongly-written letter telling them my side of this scenario and allowing them to ponder on it. Now, I feel that this person is certainly not worth my time. My time is quite valuable actually, and this person has done nothing in my eyes to deserve a moment of it. Yet, I’ve given it to this person. I have been kind to this person since we met. In the time we have known each other, they have seen the very opposite of how I had always been described. In the course of a year, this person has witnessed who I actually am, and not the monster after all. Yet, the words still escaped this person’s mouth that I was planning other people’s lives for my own selfish end.

This person has worked in the legal field for a very long time. That’s probably the most appalling part of this entire short story. This person should have given merit to all argument, seen or heard all proof, before trying, convicting, sentencing and executing an inexcusably vile character assassination on me.

There was a time not so long ago that I might have engaged this verbal assault with one of my own, and left this creature and their college degrees doing pullups on a push-pin. Now, I’m closing out the abusive and cutting assumptions they made of my person with the thoughts that if you’ve never been anything but kind and selfless to someone and they accuse you of their own behavior, they have psychological issues and need medical help. It’s not about you. It’s about them. It’s not a true insult if you know it’s not an honest assertion. It’s also not a true insult if you really just don’t give a damn.

I’m not trying to be a Christian. I AM a Christian. I am trying to be a decent person and not render this offender permanently emotionally scarred by my rebuttal of those misspoken words. That’s what I’m trying to do. My walk with Christ is the reason I’m giving this effort, because this person does not deserve my restraint, fair understanding of personality disorders, or relatively judicious consideration of this person’s circumstances. Yes, I’m being vague because I am friends with this person’s spouse and I would not embarrass my friend by outing the venom my friend has to endure on a routine basis. However, should my friend ever decide to abandon ship, I will be there in a life-raft in a couple of hours.