You Got a Rotten Attitude and You Better Straighten Out!

My Bethel pal reflected on how frail people are today and how the old-timers must scratch their heads in wonder. Back in their day (the good old days) a person might be counseled this way: You got a rotten attitude and you better straighten up!

And they would straighten up! And they’d say thanks for the counsel! Or maybe they wouldn’t. Maybe they’d decide to go elsewhere in life. But they wouldn’t crumble.

Today, erring ones get counsel sandwiches. Take one thick slice of bread. Place a small slice of counsel on top. Cover with another thick slice of bread. The bread, of course, represents gushing (but genuine) praise, needed to cushion counsel’s blow to the ego.

I’ve heard them called brotherums….. Brother, um…that was a fine so and so, this or that, but, um, did you ever consider that…..

How did people get so fragile? To be sure, the blockheads of the past didn’t have a bit of tact, and it can only be good that they finally get some. But the fragility?

All of us are raised in increasingly uncertain times by families who, as a result, are increasingly dysfunctional. It takes its toll. Too, every generation is one generation further from mankind’s perfect start. That too, must take its toll.

It’s good to remember that when we interact with others. Cut them some slack.

 

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Tom Irregardless and Me             No Fake News but Plenty of Hogwash