# Age of indifference...



## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

I was thinking lately how strange and creepy time we live in...When you have to pretend and play cold, indifferent, so people would like you and miss you...Whenever you show emotions and good will it is considered a weakness or naivety...I was not thought that way and was very emotional and soulful since childhood...But now i slowly embrace that pattern because if one throws away/around his compassion and positive energy the only end result will be his own emptiness and loneliness...Your thoughts?


----------



## arnerich (Aug 19, 2016)

This passage is typically attributed to Mother Teresa. Regardless who wrote it and whether you believe in god I think it's good advice.

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.


----------



## Dan Ante (May 4, 2016)

We have the PC police to control your written and spoken words when will the freaks control our minds?


----------



## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Flamme said:


> I was thinking lately how strange and creepy time we live in...When you have to pretend and play cold, indifferent, so people would like you and miss you...Whenever you show emotions and good will it is considered a weakness or naivety...I was not thought that way and was very emotional and soulful since childhood...But now i slowly embrace that pattern because if one throws away/around his compassion and positive energy the only end result will be his own emptiness and loneliness...Your thoughts?


Facebook is warning people for Facebook, because too much time spent on Facebook means: you will feel bad & depressed. Compared with the recent past people are getting more harnessed and less personal, I guess, and Facebook did a lot to make people close the book of their face. OK, I never was on Facebook nor do I twitter etc.

"In the final analysis, it is between you and God" - I would rather say: between you and an angel. I'm always curious and looking forward to meeting an angel. Yes, my wife is an angel, I love her, but she's not the only one who is being sent to meet me. With this angelic view in mind life is good indeed!


----------



## Minor Sixthist (Apr 21, 2017)

I don't have a lot of thoughts except that it's so difficult to be virtuous when I'm by default incredibly cynical and distrustful of people because those close to me outside, say, my family have proven selfish and vague and Machiavellian on so many counts that I don't know how I'll get through the world being some kind of compassionate Saint like I'm told.

It's so hard. Especially with the added bonus of watching people I care for care for other people first and only, and then wondering every second of the day what I could've done to be different. I have no answers. All I could do is read Nietzsche and mope.


----------



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Flamme said:


> I was thinking lately how strange and creepy time we live in...When you have to pretend and play cold, indifferent, so people would like you and miss you...Whenever you show emotions and good will it is considered a weakness or naivety...I was not thought that way and was very emotional and soulful since childhood...But now i slowly embrace that pattern because if one throws away/around his compassion and positive energy the only end result will be his own emptiness and loneliness...Your thoughts?


I grew up in a culture that pulled both ways. Yorkshire in the 1950s was on the one hand a place that encouraged honesty and saying what you really felt, but on the other hand encouraged grit and stoicism. The two aren't necessarily exclusive, and being British and of my generation means that I believe in a certain amount of self-restraint. 
But honesty has always been important for me, and I don't expect deviousness in others.

And yet, over the years, honesty has got me into a lot of trouble. When we were applying to adopt, I was honest about my difficult father, with the result that the social worker (who with the demand for babies was only looking for a way to reject us) decided that I was damaged goods as a parent.

Luckily for me, though I was hurt, I never doubted myself, because I grew up in a large family and have always loved children, and got on well with them in my work as a teacher. And now, despite seeing women of my age with all the delights of grandchildren, I don't really regret it. I have a wonderful marriage and a husband that I can talk to and be myself with, as soppy as I feel like.

But because I am sensitive, I feel other people's coldness acutely, particularly when I have been warm or enthusiastic to them. I hate aggressiveness because I saw so much of it when I was a child.

So I see where you're coming from - to avoid hurt, over the years, I've tried to be more silent and wear my heart on my sleeve a little less. But at the end of the day, I still can't bear to be insincere, and I don't want to reproach myself for lack of warmth or for being rude to someone.

So stay true to yourself, Flamme, and be someone who feels and shows it, even if you develop a little more restraint.


----------



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

arnerich said:


> This passage is typically attributed to Mother Teresa. Regardless who wrote it and whether you believe in god I think it's good advice.
> 
> People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
> 
> ...


This is excellent. And if someone doesn't believe in God, it can be between 'you and your conscience' or 'you and your higher self'.


----------

