My friend was furious with posts on social media requesting a reduction or nil use of fireworks and other pollutants. He kept playing the broken record, ‘what about festivals of other religions? Why don’t they speak up then?’
‘You are right!’, an inebriated passer-by joined IN. ‘my doctor is telling me to quit alcohol… I told them to tell the others first. Let the whole world first stop drinking. Don’t tell me to do it first! Tell them first!’
My friend got angry, ‘you are not in your senses, you had too much drink!’ The intoxicated one replied, ‘so are you… you have too much of victimhood!’ Playing adjudicator, I said, ‘both of you have consumed contaminant!’
In etiquette, the phrase ‘after you’ displays courtesy. It is an attitude to politely urge another person to do something first... at the door, at the buffet table, at circumstances when both are in queue for the same purpose.
However, in a situation of individual initiative, it is irrational to insist on ‘after you’. Positive transformations happen when individuals step ahead to seize onus instead of weltering in victimhood. ‘If it has to be, it starts with me.’
When we consider ourselves as victims of negative actions of others, we use it as an excuse to insist that the ‘other’ should first ‘do’ the desired action. Such approaches of ‘after you’ are plain excuses at the best and devious escapism at the worst. We must take onus for our actions.
Unless in queue, quit the insistence of ‘after you’
Major transformations start with initiatives of few!
~ Pravin K Sabnis
#mondaymuse21stYear #pravinsabnis #since2004 #motivation #blogging #MondayMuse
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