Friends are everything in life. That's just my opinion though - Day 20

32. Sartre said, “Hell is other people,” while Streisand sang, “People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.” With whom do you agree? (Amherst)

                Hell, a place that is the bitterest of the bitter, is known as home for people ordered to eternal damnation. Obvious I do not believe that living around other people is like being in hell. From a young age, my parents have taught me not to “hate” people. There are people I may dislike, but I’d never hate them enough that they could produce a hell on earth sort of situation to me.  I tend to take these types of situations in a positive manner.

                This prompt reminded me of a story my mother used to tell me as a child. Now that I think about it, I realize that it partially relates to Thank You For Arguing. My mom always told me to treat people positively, no matter what. This method actually works. When people start acting rude towards me, I just smile, say “thanks” and continue to be nice to them. This confuses them, and often changes their behavior. You will notice this change, and soon. It’ll start with them acting the way you treat them, and then gradually changed to bigger and stronger impacts on you. Interestingly, this method has a high effectiveness rate. Back in 8^th grade, this tall Argentinian kid would always bully the younger and weaker ones. One of my good friends was one of them. As this Argentinian kid came up to my friend in an attempt to take his lunch money, I defended him. Before anything got serious I said positively, “Yo man (‘cause I was cool like that), Let’s go play some basketball. I haven’t played in ages.” Now the bully was extremely ticked off at me. He starts yelling at me now. I smile, look at him, and reply “So basketball or no?” His temper started to cool down but he wasn’t chill yet. He asked me in a confused expression, “Dave, are you crazy? I could beat the crap out of you right now, and this is what you’re talking?” I continue smiling, trying to hold my laughter as I realized how right my parents were. “Well, yeah I know you could do that. We could also just go playing some basketball, it would include a lot less violence.” I replied after a moment of silence. What’d we do after that? The three of us played basketball, that’s right.

                This is one of the most straight forward incidents where I grasped how this method works. It being effective is one thing; it also solves most arguments without violence. This whole incident and story relates back to the fact that we need friends to be who we are. Life is lonely without them and that would probably be a better example of hell. People that find the goodness in others are the ones that are able to appreciate the smaller things in life. This is important to avoid making life as dull as it may seem.