Do you love this insistent language you see in the personal ads on the
websites.... "I DEMAND TO BE TREATED LIKE ROYALTY"... saw that on one of them, wondered to myself, how do you lay
down the law in no uncertain terms like that ?
I was always under the impression, excuse my lowly peasant
error if'n I had it all wrong, that respect was unlike, say, a blue poker chip you toss in the pot, but rather a
general appreciation for qualities in another person, something that makes that person exceptional, perhaps their
courage, or diligence, or level of their humanity, or generosity, or dogged determination in the face of adversity,
or capacity to grow when most of their contemporaries have closed up shop and gone home in the mental development
department, unusual social skills..... ya know what I mean, we used to call these "virtues"... may sound kinda dated
in these commodified times...
Or maybe we're gettin' respect semantically confused with good manners and
common courtesy and the capacity to make someone else our emotional focal point for longer than we might interact
with a pet chihuahua.
Common courtesy is a basic ingredient, like flour in a recipe for making cookies.... no
flour, no cookies, no matter what else you have going on. BUT, if some person demands that I put them up on a
pedestal and treat them as if they are above and beyond the common run of humanity without any exceptional efforts
on their part it's pretty clear that they are afflicted with 1., histrionic personality disorder, will forever be
an emotional energy draining cosmic void of neediness 2., were raised by immature, narcissistic parents who
projected
ludicrous distortions onto their perfectly nice kid who internalized them and now needs five years of
intense therapy, 3. is borderline mentally retarded, or 4., is the offspring of some folks who are so freaking rich
and powerful that I'm always going to come up looking second rate next to Uber-Dad and unless I morph into Donald
Trump with better hair, game over.
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