The people around us have the capacity to lead us across the full spectrum from heavenly joy to hellish torment. And they don't even have to mean to. A word not in tune with my (to another inaccessible) interior state can be like a searing poker while a friendly gesture (whether meant with much sincerity or awareness or not) can restore faith in humanity. A lot of how the actions of others are read by me is down to me though and a focus on what is going on right now (rather than having taken place years or even just minutes ago or being anticipated in the future) is a sure-fire way both to put the negative into perspective and to give the positive oxygen. Today I failed miserably at this challenge, crushed between a dark past and a bleak future, but tomorrow I am going to try again (stopping myself from putting the odds into numbers).
The stakes are high at the extremes: Sartre’s “hell is other people” at one and Jesus’ “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mathew, 18:20) at the other end. I'd be a fool not to try.
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