Do you give more than you get back? Does it make sense to keep giving when it is unrequited?
You hear this most often in reference to love, but I'm thinking in other contexts too.
Are you the polite type that always says please and thank you? Opens doors for people? Gives up your seat on the bus?
If that is never, ever, ever reciprocated do you keep doing it because you feel it's right? Or do you eventually become embittered?
I know for me there are things I like to do that I wish the recipients would reciprocate or at least acknowledge...but on the other hand, they're things I enjoy doing...so I'm thinking I should just take pleasure in that and leave it be. :)
What do you think? I'm curious.
Another random thought...does anyone else have the issue with their brain and mouth being completely disconnected? Sometimes I find people will say, "Have a nice day" or "Thanks for coming" and I think, "Thanks, you too" or "Thank you for having us" but it totally fails to exit my mouth and by the time I realize I didn't actually say anything, it's too late and I look like a jerk.
Hi.
ReplyDeleteI have not posted in a while but this I wanted to address ever so briefly. For me personally I carry out the niceness through out my day. Well I try to at least. There are days that I feel I am entitled a free pass on the smile sharing.
Anyway on to answer the question about becoming embittered. I do. Sometimes I have the feeling like, "What's the point?" However there is a very specific focus to examine here. If a passing stranger does not reciprocate I am rarely offended or even make a note of it. No one is required to be pleasant or kind.
It is the friend or someone close in your life that fails to reciprocate the effort you exert that I feel becomes an energy leech. In that scenario I feel it is necessary to call into question reason to continue such behavior. If you find it is unjustifiable, by all means leave it alone. It sort of ties in with "tough love."
Sometimes you just need to let someone fall before they realize you were holding them up. Then can then choose to acknowledge their situation and communicate with you about it, or choose to neglect it and the result should be that they lose your supportive efforts.
And the brain - mouth communication loss. I think that comes into multi-tasking internally, causing a traffic delay ^_^. Yes, sometimes "It happens."