Respect

We all want different things out of life – riches, power, satisfaction of making a positive change, health, happiness, love or something else.

Underlying all these, there is primary need that all humans crave – the need to be respected. No matter how confident, how secure, how rich we might be, we still crave to be respected. Yes, at times, we might chose to give up or ignore this need for a purpose, but it definitely cannot be ignored for a long time. 

While we all expect to be respected, we fail so often to respect others around us. When all of us understand this need so well, how can we fail to provide it to others? Few reasons, I think, why it happens –

• We disagree with someones point of view and assume we are right and they are wrong
• We don’t understand their value systems and jump into character assassinations, just because their values don’t match ours

Just because someone is different or thinks differently does not make them wrong. If they seem wrong to you, I am sure, you seem equally wrong to them. The sad irony of it is also – The higher we hold ourselves in our respect, the lower we seem others around us.

While we might chose to climb our lofty abodes and laugh down upon others, we should just remember that the height that we imagine, only exists in our minds. Given a little bit more imagination, anyone can climb much higher than us and chose to laugh down upon us. Are we ready for that to happen?