Last updated: September 19, 2026 9:59 am
- The need to feel seen, appreciated, valued, and respected is as basic a human right as food and shelter, and it applies to even people I despise due to different beliefs and ideologies.
- Translation to action: No lashing out/mentally justifiying deliberate hurt to others, even if their ignorance/bigotry irritates/hurts me first
- I’m not sure if I can get behind this completely yet: it feels like self-betrayal to not take action when I feel hurt.
- Potentially undermining premises: Self-respect, setting boundaries, standing up for myself, not being a pushover, (prevailing in the culture war? See
observations#1).
- Translation to action: No lashing out/mentally justifiying deliberate hurt to others, even if their ignorance/bigotry irritates/hurts me first
- The goal of all non-transaction-oriented human interactions is connection (what connection means to me: to see each other and be seen).
- Is it appropriate/egotistical to speak up when I have different opinion than what’s being shared in the conversation? On one hand, I believe that my opinion is just that: somebody’s opinion and it’s not always important to have it voiced. On the other, though, I feel like this passivity is not serving me in terms of forming genuine connection with others. If it’s context dependent, then what are those contexts?
- I value authenticity over polish. What this means to me is that I understand being authentic is not always pretty, likable, and pleasant. I love people who are authentic nonetheless. Such vigor and grit in them that even any awkwardness and cringe is endearing.
- Can I love someone who’s authentic but not empathetic, though? I supposed not. I should stop throwing phrases like this (“I love people who…”) seeing my love carries more conditions than I’d realized.
- Strive to be strong. For strength affords one the capacity to be gentle.
Observations
- The tenderness/goodness in a society is fragile. It erodes without conscious effort by its members to preserve and uphold it.
- While the idea of swaying people’s mind/influencing others with words is good and all, intensively studied and preached as the art of rhetorics, It seems people’s mind are more often changed by concrete, small interactions in their daily lives, not words.