We always wanted to be treated equally. And we also hear
many people calling for it nowadays. Equality, they say. But what does that
mean? I’m not sure. Because before, I tried to treat everyone as an equal. When
I discuss or argue with women, I treated them as an equal. When I talk with
people above my age, again, I treated them as an equal. I did not disrespect them.
I just talked with them as how I think they should treat me at that point.. Just a straight forward
discussion with a person whom I view as my equal. But after doing that, people called me
ungentlemanly and disrespectful of the elders.
So this is how I understood what people truly like. Equal
treatment is not really what we want. What we had always been looking for is a better
treatment from others. Not equal but better. But do we get it? No. Not always
at least. And we can’t get it unless we stop wanting it. Therefore, we must first
give it.
Rather than seeing others as our equal, we must treat each
person we meet every day as someone more special and more important than us. No
one or just very few will cry “inequality” or “discrimination” from our actions
if we do so. That false sense of entitlement and pride is what primarily gives
us that feeling of disappointment and mistreatment from others. But once we
stop wanting to be treated better and start focusing on how we address other
people, we’ll end up less disappointed. We’ll feel better about ourselves and
other people. And when most of us do it, we’ll no longer need to ask to be
treated better by others. They will just do it.
