Why They Hate You

This afternoon I read a quote made by the late Spike Milligan - Money can't buy friends, but you can get a better class of enemy. It reminded me of the fact that, as yet, "enemy" is an abstract concept for me. Oh, there are people I dislike and there are those who dislike me, but enemy? No. I suppose they are one of those things (like experience and wrinkles) that accumulate as you get older, whether you like it or not. If you could make it through your whole life without gaining one enemy. . . what would that say about you? It's a desirable thing, certainly, but is it a wise goal? What sort of compromises would you have to make, how many opportunities would you have to pass up, which principles would you have to violate? Would it be worth it? Should we even worry about it? No and no. Too many people worry incessantly about how others will respond to their actions, and in doing so lose their own life. They become merely extensions on the lives of everyone they know. Be kind, be thoughtful, be loving - and then do the right thing and follow your own road (in that order) no matter what. No matter who will turn against you, no matter who will blacklist you, no matter who will seek to shoot you down. It will be painful, it will be lonely - but you will know that you are alive and of some worth, and are not just a superfluous meaningless cog in an ailing machine. It is as stupid (and as vain) to try to avoid enemies as attempting to hide from experience. Enemies, whether low class or high, will come. It's out of your hands. What you can decide is why they hate you.