Throwing Stones

People love throwing stones at each other. Being judgmental as we are, we love looking at the flaws of others, highlighting them and broadcasting them to the world in bold letters. Oftentimes we forget that the very same flaws exist in us and because we are too busy minding other people's business, we already forget to look within ourselves.

"Now, standing in a pile of shards where a glass house once stood, I can't remember who threw the first stone. Maybe it was me. Maybe not. It doesn't matter. The stone-throwing got so intense that I forgot why they were being thrown to begin with. Oh, yeah. I remember. I was pointing my finger at others and accusing them of things for which I was equally, if not more, guilty. For every stone I threw, a bigger one came back at me." (from: Goals of a Recovering Idiot)

Reading those lines from a web article I've read triggered some thoughts in my mind. Those lines were honest, bare and hits the heart.

Many times I have been guilty of the same thing. Throwing stones at others who also throw stones at me. At first we hurl pebbles to each other, smirking whenever the other speaks or laughing behind each others backs. Then we found bigger stones and started throwing them at each other, not necessarily minding who gets hit and what happens after that. The only thing we want is to get even, to hurt the others more than they hurt us, to prove who hits better. And then we found boulders of great sizes and we decided to hurl them at each other too. In the end, nobody won---we all end up wounded and tired.

Instead of taking direct actions and accepting our mistakes and respecting each others individuality we opted to act like a bunch of neanderthals and started throwing darts on each other. We could have save ourselves from pain if we only realized earlier that throwing stones at each other only makes life harder.

We are all idiots. At some point in our lives, we all become idiots. I guess I have to agree with whoever the author of that essay is when he said that the "things that annoy us about others are often characteristics we possess." True isn't it? I guess I understand why.

Oftentimes, we pretend that we are perfect, that we are free from flaws and that flaws only exist in others and not in us. So when somebody comes along who possess the characteristics we try so hard to ignore in ourselves, we start hating them. Why? Because its like facing a mirror and seeing a huge ugly scar on your face. Or I guess its more like facing a magnifier which emphasizes all the flaws you are so desperate to hide.

Instead of facing the fact that those scars exist and instead of focusing on healing the scars, we often opt to blame the scars, hate it and scratch it hoping that if we do it will go away. WRONG. The scar will of course stay and instead of making it better, you only made it look worst.

Throwing stones at each will not make a problem go away. Something that we should always remember.