In 1968, when Kent M. Keith was a 19-year-old sophomore at Harvard, he wrote these "Paradoxical Commandments" as guidelines for student leaders to find personal meaning in the face of adversity:
1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
3. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway. I have more problems with this one than any. Telling people what they don't want to hear is a bitch.
6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
7. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for underdogs anyway.
8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
9. People who need help may attack you if you help them. Help people anyway.
10. Give the world the best you have, and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.
The essence of these commandments is that all of us must choose to do what we think we should, even when we think we have good reasons not to. They remind us we are capable of rising above common practices that demean our nature and culture.
We can rationalize distorting the Golden Rule to read "Do unto others as they have done unto you" or "Do unto others before they do unto you," but in the terminology of the 1960s, we then become part of the problem rather than the solution.
4 comments:
Great rules to live by, and I am putting many of them into practice at this stage in my life. Cheers!!
Wait, so that isn't the golden rule?
It's hard, Al, but so true. The world has beaten me up and down, but I will not sink to other peoples levels.
i should hang these on my wall...words to live by for sure.
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