S

March   12th

SEEING  THINGS  AS  THE PERSON  AT  FAULT   DOES

“Whenever   someone has done    wrong   by  you,    immediately consider    what    notion  of  good    or  evil

they    had in  doing   it. For when    you see that,   you’ll  feel    compassion, instead of  astonishment    or

rage.   For you may yourself    have    the same    notions of  good    and evil,   or  similar ones,   in  which

case    you’ll  make    an  allowance   for what    they’ve done.   But if  you no  longer  hold    the same

notions,    you’ll  be  more    readily gracious    for their   error.”

—MARCUS AURELIUS,   MEDITATIONS,    7.26

ocrates, perhaps the wisest person to ever live, used to say that “nobody does wrong willingly.”
Meaning that no one is wrong on purpose either. Nobody thinks they’re wrong, even when they are.
They think they’re right, they’re just mistaken. Otherwise, they wouldn’t think it anymore!
Could it be that the slights you’ve experienced or the harm that others have done to you was not
inflicted intentionally? What if they simply thought they were doing the right thing—for them, even for
you? It’s like the memorial for Confederate soldiers at Arlington (obviously a cause that was wrongly
fought for by people doing wrong), which states, in part, that the Confederate soldiers served “in simple
obedience to duty, as they understood it.” Again—they understood wrongly, but it was their genuine
understanding, just as Lincoln was genuine when he ended his famous Cooper Union speech by saying,
“Let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”
How much more tolerant and understanding would you be today if you could see the actions of other
people as attempts to do the right thing? Whether you agree or not, how radically would this lens change
your perspective on otherwise offensive or belligerent actions?