I found this speech given by David Foster Walace and it made me really sad.
It's a speech highlighting how easy it is to be negative by default. It is telling people to try and make kindness your default.
I use to think like this everyday (I was more Disney character than human being). I use to try and see the best in every person and situation but as work days got longer and I got older (and the kids I teach made me want to rip my hair out) , impatience and frustration did become my default and I do think we allow ourselves to just drift into default mode.
This has been happening to me so much over the last few years. I'll get annoyed at someone walking to close to me in the subway. I'll be angry and the person talking on their phone and I'll become actually angry and someone who makes me detour on my path as I walk to work, how very dare they cross my path! These things have added up to the point I'm angry at myself and a little scared i'm only a few days away from becoming an evil villan who steals childrens candy.
This speech is insightful and brilliant. If you have a few minutes I suggest you have a listen. It reminds us that every person around us has their own problems. Each one of us is dealing with stress and different life frustrations so maybe I should see people as people instead of barriers.
I use to be the person that would say a bad driver probably had an emergency to get to or the person on the phone talking loudly was excited because maybe they hadn't spoke to their friend in years. I want to think more like this again and I think this speech is really inspiring.
We are all just people. We have bad days and good days. Don't let your mind default to annoyance.
SPEECH
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