A few people have asked why I wrote ‘Living Gold‘ & I wish the answer was more complex than “I had an idea and wrote it down”. . . but it isn’t!
Well, it is more complex, but that answer is what my brain immediately comes up with.
I’m enrolled in Seminar in Political Theory this semester, and have my brain exploded every Monday night from 6-8:30 by my seriously-brilliant professor.
One night, we were talking about the duality of human nature. . . which led to a discussion about judging people based on their actions, but ourselves based on our intentions. . . which made me wonder about why these sorts of Golden Rule ideas don’t actually have “teeth” (why it’s not effective).
I wrestled with that idea all night – the emotional distance between ourselves and others. . . actions vs. intentions. . . how I could look at examples in my own life and see that doing unto others what I’d want them to do unto me didn’t actually mean anything.
Why doesn’t it “mean” anything?
Well, because it’s so vague. The actions that go with “treat others how you want them to treat you” aren’t clear, therefore people can’t really do it. Our minds only respond to positive commands – even though the message may be the same, there is a difference between “Don’t be loud” and “Keep your voice down.”
On the same vague term, the actions that go with the Golden Rule differ with each and every person. One person may want others to treat them like royalty, while another wants to be left alone physically and have personal conversations. We would spend all our time worrying about which actions will go best with everyone – catering to each and every person’s whim is no way to live.
I thought that there surely was a way to treat everyone that was the same across the board.
How could we change our thinking about what the rule says in order to do better?
Like the movie ‘Inception,’ I knew I had to go deeper.
I had to get to the intentions level of others. . . but remain universally applicable. . .
What does everyone want?
To be their best. To be seen as their best version. We want everyone else to see us like we see ourselves, to believe in us, and to understand what we want to be.
That’s where I got the “Best Self.”
We want everyone to see us as our Best Self, and understanding that about ourselves and about everyone else gives us somewhere to start applying the Golden Rule in a more-accurate and more effective way.
That’s the long and the short of it!
I’m constantly thinking about the cliches we’ve been taught & what they actually mean, and also how I see we can do better. That’s what we should be doing – BETTER. The world needs better. Society needs better. We deserve to be better. I like to explore and introduce ways to make that happen.
You can find ‘Living Gold’ on Amazon.