a broken mold

You don’t know. Transparency is an illusion on both sides. You think people know what you’re thinking. They don’t. People think they know what you’re thinking. They don’t.

This is one of my favorite quotes (often attributed to Plato, but it was probably said by Ian Maclaren):

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

There are things, many things you don’t know about a person. Of course people vary. But it’s true overall. The heart hides things you might not think can be hidden. But we’re pretty good at this.

There’s not really much else to say until you’ve understood this, seen and known somebody hiding such pain. There was a Mefite who recently comitted suicide. He left a sad, sad note. He never told anyone about his demons and his experiences with professional help were pretty poor.

And he hid it. He was a nice guy. You might not have any idea he was so often in pain, he was so pleasant and kind.

And so he left his story in a note before he killed himself. You didn’t know, I didn’t know, his parents didn’t care. He was ashamed; he didn’t think anybody could care.

It’s so easy to hurt people, to tear them down because you’re annoyed, scared, stupid, not thinking, offended by the front they put up to hide what’s inside, and so on and so on.

Of course you should always be kind, love everybody. But maybe it would be a little easier if you remember that everyone is fighting a hard battle, even the people you don’t think are. Everybody holds inside things you can’t see, perhaps things that are utterly crushing. Everybody’s got a fight somewhere.