Everyone is fighting their own private battle

“Be kind, everyone you meet is fighting their own private battle.”

I read that quote somewhere quite a while ago, and, after exhaustive searching on the internet (okay, 5 or 10 minutes), I can’t find it attributed to anyone in particular. I guess it was Anon who said that, he seems to have said all kinds of interesting things, on all kinds of subjects.

Anyway, I think it’s good to be reminded of this once in a while; everyone has their own battles to fight, and we know absolutely nothing about most of them. We go through life fully immersed in our own business, our attention focused entirely on ourselves, but we always manage to notice every little infraction caused by other people … because that’s causing us problems!!

We don’t know … maybe we don’t care …

What we don’t know, or care about, is what’s behind their actions. They might have something important on their mind that’s just taking all their attention. And we have no idea what it might be. Maybe it’s a driver making you short tempered – he cuts in, or darts out of a side road without checking it’s clear, or parks thoughtlessly … and we just lose it! Maybe it’s a sales assistant and she’s taking a bit too long to deal with our enquiry, or the purchase we’re trying to make – her mind just doesn’t seem to be on the job. Maybe it’s the person who didn’t bother to acknowledge us when we stood and held the door open for them.

We meet them all day, every day … people who do things that infuriate us by their apparently careless attitude. And we let it really get to us. We should know better, but … we just let ourselves get really worked up and angry and … well, we let things go downhill pretty fast.

Let’s put it into perspective

I just came across a little video that puts this right into perspective. In just a few short minutes it reminds us that everyone is indeed going through some personal issue, maybe their own private little hell, and it wouldn’t hurt to slow down and give them a little leeway.

Take a look …