Live

by speaking cruelly to another person.

Neville Chamberlain said "an aristocrat is someone who never hurts another person unintentionally."

paraphrased from memory

It gets too easy to get a superior attitude with our addicts, doesn't it?

I didn't recognize this in myself for a long time.

Freedom1990

I've been very blessed in having hard-nosed sponsors throughout my recovery who weren't afraid to knock me down a few notches.

I had a horrible problem with thinking I was 'better than' not just in regards to other addicts, but people in general.

I was critical and egotistical, and if my sponsors didn't get to me first, it seemed something always happened that squashed my giant ego flat!

I was told more than once that the things I despised in others was what I really need to look at in me the most.

I swear I thought my head was going to catch on fire when I heard that!

It was and still is true though.

When I feel myself getting critical or judgmental these days, I know I need to do some serious internal inventory.

Live

Yes, Just last week...I was listening to someone's opinion...and was thinking to myself what an uneducated, ignorant opinion it was...and it is. but she has a salt of the earth character about her that I don't have.

I just recalled the Dalai Lama speaking about someone whom he had nearly felt judgemental with and then stopped himself thinking that man had a full head of hair when he himself did not.

Now, I am sure that was just a simple illustration from His Holiness...but a good one apparently because it came to mind, eh?

Still Waters

I can tell you, with total honesty, that the trash that lives across the street and calls her elementary school aged child a "little f*ck*r", who continually hangs out in her front yard yelling on her cell phone the F word, and who rips up and down the road at high speeds regularly causes me to feel superior.

But you know what? I don't do those things. Personally, I don't give a rats a** what she does - until I have to listen to it.

If that's me being all superior and judgmental, then so be it.