Let’s be real for a second: We don’t care about other people. Now, now, before you start bombarding me with comments, think about this. You’re driving down a highway. You’re just cruising along, maybe jamming out to ACDC or whatever music you like, when all of a sudden, a car passes you on the other side of the road. You stop head banging for long enough to see the driver. Now, the driver could be a number of different people. They could be a man or a woman, old or young, maybe a redhead or a brunette. Their clothes, however, seem kind of cheap. They’re torn and ripped in several places, and that car that they’re driving is kind of beat up. The paint is chipping, and it’s rusty.

Now, we could make a few assumptions about who this person is. They could be homeless. Maybe not likely, but possible. They could be working some low-income job at a local diner somewhere, and are living in a small apartment near a freeway. They could be in some sort of debt because they went on some credit card-fueled spending spree. Now, if you’re a regular person, you don’t pay much attention. You just assume that they’re homeless, or in debt, or have a crappy job and go on with your life. The thing is, that person could have over 40 or 50 years of experience. They could be homeless because their house burned down, and they had decided not to get insurance because they were a bit strapped for cash. They could have a crappy job because their company just decided one day to replace them for an automated machine because it’d be cheaper for the company in the long run. They could be in debt because they went through a divorce and their husband/wife took off with their entire life savings. The thing is you don’t see those years of experience. You see what’s presented in front of you. You don’t know about that person, and most of the time you don’t really care because it’s not relevant to you. The point I’m trying to make is that if we could see what that person had gone through, we wouldn’t be so quick to judge them.

Some more words of wisdom: Everyone is a person. Obvious, right? Maybe not. I’ll admit, it’s obvious in the sense that most people take it. But I see this saying differently. This is how I began to see the real truth.

When I first started realizing this fact, I compared myself to different people. I would do it for the heck of it, imagining I was somebody walking past me at that moment. I would see myself through their eyes. I started doing that to other people in different situations. Whenever somebody had good luck on something, like winning a lottery, I would imagine myself seeing life through their eyes. I would do that to anybody who had bad luck, like someone who got in a car wreck. I know it sounds strange, but trust me on this. I eventually started doing it in normal conversations.

Okay, pause here. I need you to recall something you may remember doing as a kid, or any time really. When I was younger, not even too long ago, my parents would make me do something I didn’t want to do, or not let me do something I wanted to do. I know I’ve just described everyone as a kid, by the way. Bear with me here. Did you ever want to express your anger in conversation? What I mean by that is basically scream stuff at them like ‘You never let me do anything!’ or ‘Why do I have to listen to you?’ When you’re younger, you actually do it. When you get older, you learn NOT to do that because of what happens if you do. However, I often wondered to myself why I couldn’t just vent my feelings. It seemed like they shouldn’t get so mad about me doing that, and it didn’t seem like something that would get me grounded. It didn’t seem like THAT big of a deal. When I started doing this in normal conversation, I would think about what I said before I said it. I would imagine myself as a parent listening to their kid say what I was about to say. When I started doing that, I realized how disrespectful and defiant I was sounding. When I pictured myself saying it to my parents, it seemed justified. I started to rethink everything. It’s gotten me farther in life than pretty much anything else. I believe it’s important to know this early. I eventually got better at doing it, and I began to view the world under a different light.

This might be a little too confusing for you, and I really can’t blame you if it is. Here I am, trying to teach wisdom, when it’s something you really have to figure out for yourself. Well, at least I’m able to say that I tried.

You might see some more of these in the future, if I think something is worth writing down. Until then.