We All Have

We All Have

We all have hurt another at some time or other,
Even as a child we must have disrespected our own Mother.
It may not have been said or done to ever hurt -
Just our personality, even then, trying to assert

Our ideas of what we feel are our own rights.
This brings forth, all our lives, many, many fights.
We eventually learn that, even as we defend our ideas,
We find a way to express without provoking hurts and fears.

Differences and disagreements are easily provoked as a child
Because we aren't old enough yet to have learned, but in a later while
The coping skills of "give and take" develop to define
Our character and personality and teach us to "redefine"

Our responses in what we expect from ourselves and others.
When this lesson is not learned we push ourselves ahead of others.
It may develop into a selfish way of life and leave us stranded
In a chaotic, destructive and unloved place of strife.

Lucile I. Burke
May 19, 1996

Those who have never reached beyond their own private world will inform you, pronto, that you are the "sucker." They consider themselves to be so astute that they are no longer vulnerable and you only get out of life what you take - your fellowman is on his own. This is a futile philosophy, as they will learn someday.