do you stick your nose in other’s business? and furthermore, what *is* your business when it comes to others’ behavior?
If so, why?
Are there any areas of the human condition that you don’t necessarily feel the need to express an opinion / belief about?
7 responses to “do you stick your nose in other’s business? and furthermore, what *is* your business when it comes to others’ behavior?”
I don’t stick my nose in other people’s business. I’ve usually got too much things going on in my own life to get caught up in the business of others. Strangely, I seem to be the “go-to” person when those close to me have trouble in their lives though. I guess I must offer some decent advice or perhaps I’m just a good listener.
It’s not necessary at all to express opinions or beliefs. I suppose it depends how much you want others to know where you stand. I think expression is a personal choice and I think expression speaks much to one’s personal need to assert themselves rather than the need for others to be exposed to those expressions. If that makes sense…
Do you think there is a line between a stance we share out of concern mainly for ourselves, and one shared out of concern for the greater whole?
And do you think there’s a point where not accurately discerning this line is actually of detriment to the individual . . . because it’s of detriment to the greater whole?
There is a point of respecting another’s privacy and rights as an individual. But the rub is, that we didn’t get to where we are today, as just a collection of individuals. We got here by all picking important points where we all pulled together. And it is rampantly irresponsible of us to sit here enjoying the benefits of past generations who DID give a collective shit about the greater whole . . . and running into isolationism and turning a self-justified blind eye to things that we SHOULD give a shit about for the sake of future generations not spiraling down the drain.
To which I would add the following aphorisms:
“Am I my brother’s keeper?” [the answer was “yes”]
“We are only as strong as our weakest link”
“Nobody gets left behind”
There is a difference between meddling for one’s own greater glory . . . and being very concerned that in the Human race, someone is getting left behind.
In a very real sense, the wisdom of being one’s brother’s keeper no longer applies. If it did, I would have been hired many times over by the people at my church. They even used my name in the prayer for the congregation, so it’s not as if they didn’t know that I was looking for work! But they’re also of the mind that the church is not an employment agency, and because they’re not called to do that, they won’t get involved.
There is much to be said about getting rid of weak links. That’s why companies fire people who can’t (or won’t) do the job. That’s why if you can edge out over your competition by a hair’s width you can be employed, while they’re left to be perpetually unemployed.
There’s also the idea of “every man/ woman for (him/her) self.” Had I lived up to that idea more, I might not be in the situation I’m in now. I could have thrown my brother out of my life, and simply said that he couldn’t live her due to his crimes. Both he and his friend are trying to make my life difficult by spreading both lies and half truths about me (or things that simply don’t concern them, and stress out my parents needlessly), stealing my money (and denying that they did so), and causing me to have to do things vastly differently that I would ever want to. The more I am pushed, the more I am sorely tempted to ask both of them do they want to be out on the streets. Because if pushed too far, I may have no choice but to arrange for that to happen not only for my own sanity, but for the health and safety of our mom.
One of the key follies of religious thinking in anything, is the supposition that OTHERS should be applying these good principles: when in reality what others choose to do with these good principles is irrelevant to what WE choose to do with them in our own life.
Others not giving a shit about others or about the greater social experiment should never be our excuse for following in some very bad footsteps. And really, there’s a kind of hypocrisy involved. We complain about not liking it when others do it . . . and then we turn around and do the same. (There are tie-ins to “the cycle of abuse” that entraps much of our society).
Getting rid of weak links is one option. Repairing them is another. And when it’s a person, I think there is added impetus in “repairing” and not just “discarding”.
The thing about “every person for themselves” is that none of our species’ great accomplishments would have happened had this mindset prevailed.
Life can certainly be much “easier” in the short-run by isolating — or even in just isolating ourselves from things “we don’t like” (ie, that don’t “massage” us!).
And as I’ve shared before, there is precedent in Scripture for someone “going too far” and being abandoned to a process they’ve made “lord and king” of their life. The ultimate expression of this . . . is “hell”.
While restoration and reconciliation are the touchstones of the Gospel . . . there comes a point where the right of a person to go where they want to go needs to be respected and ties cut. But it is more a “so sad” than a “so there!”.
No. I am sure that people can figure out their lives for themselves.
I mind my own business. I am busy and have plenty to do just managing my own life.
Yes, I have been known to “stick my nose in other’s business”, with varying degrees of success and failure to bring about a positive outcome. I worked as a correctional officer in a prison for twelve years. It was my job to monitor other’s behavior, and when necessary, intervene to “correct” their behavior; thus the title CORRECTIONAL OFFICER.