If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.
Confucius
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I liked this saying because I remembered back to when I was young and didn't know how to deal with the world in a balanced fashion. I spent a whole lot of my time putting other people down because I didn't want to ever be like them. I didn't have good role models.
So, Bob is a drunk and Linda is a slut and Frank is a wife beater and on and on. I knew a whole lot of dysfunctional people but I didn't know how NOT to be those dysfunctional people. So, I just tried hard to label people and stay completely away from them.
I could have used this advice sooner, I think:) I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.
As it stands, I had to spend quite a few years thinking about what is being a good person. So, maybe this little bit of advice from Confucius wouldn't have done me all that much good way back when! After all, one cannot take the good points of some and the bad points of others when you can't figure out which is which.
Eventually, I realized that I had learned how to be a good person and I didn't have to worry so much about being like these people. I am not like those people. I have had the good fortune to find my way in this world despite the poor lessons learned from my family early on. I no longer worry about not being a drunk, a druggie, a meaney.
That is not to say that I have reached perfection as a human being. Just that I turned out good and decent. Having learned those lessons, they cannot be taken away by knowing a bad person. I don't hang out with bad people because I don't enjoy drunks and louts, not because they can take my lessons from me.
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