Being Invisible
Me: I’m the best thing that ever happened to you!
The Professor wrote me this morning while I was writing this blog entry and sent me this article entitled: Shkreli vs. Holmes: 2 Frauds, 2 Divergent Outcomes. Were They Fair?
Actually read it last night but I thought it was interesting that he wrote me because he and I were both bullied as kids.
Suspect that all bullied kids wish they had superpowers but I think that they diverge on the type they hope to have.
Most want to be Superman – strong and invincible. But some wanted to be invisible. Like me. I just wanted to be left alone.
Left alone cause I was a weird kid that wanted to do my weird kid things in peace.
When I read Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, one story that stuck in my mind was that of what was the single biggest determinant of whether a doctor would be sued or not was how much the patient liked them.
And that story reminded me of yet another story – weird kids become weird adults – which was about James Bond.
Read somewhere that James Bond was protected, not by all the gadgets and gizmos he had, but by a cloak of affability. People just liked him and wanted to help him or sleep with him.
Always thought that was a pretty good deal.
I digress, back to the article: Martin Shkreli and Elizabeth Holmes were both morally bankrupt business people that broke the law. And yet Martin Shkreli is going to jail while Elizabeth Holmes essentially will get a fine and go on with her life.
Why? Because one was hated and one was not. Or at least, less so.
That thing I wrote previously about leaving people better off having met you than not isn’t so much about being nice to other people so much as it about me being left alone.
Being nice to other people is just a beneficial by-product.
What Johnny, Trump, and my old friend don’t seem to understand is that being hated is like a sinking ship; it forces everyone around you to either sink with you or frantically swim away lest they get pulled down with you.
It’s why I always value kindness above everything else. Because kindness is peaceful. Kindness floats.
And it lets you be the invisible man. No one pays attention to the invisible man. So you’re free to do your weird kid things in peace, even as a 44 year-old adult.
Gymgirl: (shrugging) Eh. You’re alright…
Location: bed, waiting for the kid to wake up
Mood: thoughtful
Music: Slow down my beating heart. A man dreams one day to fly
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8 replies on “Kindness Floats”
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