Forgive them anyway
Forgive Them Anyway
People are often unreasonable, illogical,
and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you
of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some
false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone
could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis,
it is all between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
If we choose to be kind, heeding Keith’s counsel, we may be accused of “selfish, ulterior motives,” but we are “kind anyway.” If we devote time to design our own approaches to our teaching or to our work and are rebuked, we “build anyway.” When we hear people mutter criticisms of us, “be happy anyway.” And when we do the best we can, but “it may never be enough,” we still give “the best we’ve got anyway.”
Keith raises queries for all of us to consider. Some include: How often are we willing to speak our minds? Do we try to conform to our work place’s culture, to our friends or colleagues’ points of view? Do we think that some of our colleagues or friends “are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered?“ Are we willing to “forgive them anyway?”
You decide to be the person you are. Whether teaching in a classroom, working at home, or at an office, you and your work becomes visible to others. You may listen to what they have to say, but when you respect yourself, you determine your place. It was “never between you and them anyway.”
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forward” (Kierkegaard)
I write to bring ideas and methods from my life as a teacher in the latter half of the 20th century to help teachers and the public to “live forward” in this century. My latest book, Teacher in the Rye: Doing It My Way is available on Amazon. And I welcome comments here on my Blog or by email at frankthoms3@gmail.com.
