I have not truly had someone to call my enemy in many years now. I treat everyone that I meet the same as anyone else. There is an old saying that says, “Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.” I learned a long time ago that the best way to achieve this is to not have enemies in the first place. This is easier than you think to accomplish.
I am now in my fifties and have met many people throughout my life. If you were to ask anyone of those, you would hear the same thing over and over, “Oh, that Billy and I have always been good friends.” This in some cases maybe true but in a lot of cases, just plain fluff! The difference is, I know whom I consider my friend and whom I don’t. The other person has no idea which side of the isle they actually occupy unless I allow it to be known. This has been a strategic ploy that I have laid out over several years.
Why, you may ask, should I keep my feelings to myself when it comes to the other person? It’s simple really, with the ones that I don’t like not knowing, I have no one that will ever become my enemy. That is unless they were to do something so drastic, that I would have to let them in on my little secret. Without an enemy, I have no drama to deal with and I can just go about my way. I make sure the people, that I truly do think of as friends, know without a doubt that they are my friends. The funny part is, even my closest friends have no idea of anyone that I don’t like. I never talk ill of anyone unless, like I said before, they do something so bad, I cannot keep my secret about how I really feel.
The main way to find out if you are on the wrong side of the isle with me is to cause harm to someone in my immediate family or a very close friend. In that case, you would find out very quickly that you are on my bad side.
After putting this ploy into affect, going on twenty years now, my life has become so much simpler. I no longer have to wander if someone is talking bad about me behind my back because I give them no reason to. Of course there are always those that cannot say anything good about anyone. Those people are surprised when they find out, I just laugh it off as though they were joking all along. The truth of the matter is, I am just jotting it down in my memory to possibly pull out if and when it is ever needed. I may get mad at this person for the comments they have made but they will never know how I truly feel.
Basically what this comes down to is another old saying, “If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” Granted, I do take this one a step farther. I may mind but will not give said person the satisfaction of knowing so. My belief carries a slightly different approach. If someone is talking bad about me and I don’t acknowledge the hurt they have caused, then the saying should be, “If I don’t mind it’s because they don’t matter.”
I think if more people would put my philosophy into effect, there would be a lot less hurt in the world. I hope this post has touched your heart and helped you along your way through life. Take care and Remember, we are all in this together.
