Like Taking Poison and Expecting the Other Guy to Die

On the imposing castle wall in Edinburgh, Scotland is inscribed the Latin slogan,

“NEMO: ME: IMPUNE:LA CESSIT”

or

“What You Do To Us, We Will Do To You”

When I saw these words, and the English interpretation was provided to me, I immediately thought of an eerily similar, but older quotation.

“Whatsoever You Would That Men Should Do To You,

Do You Even So To Them”

or

“However You Would Like People To Treat You,

Then Treat Them The Same Way”

 

Interesting, that the Scottish motto inscribed on that great castle on the rock seems to be taken almost verbatim from what we have come to know as “The Golden Rule,” with one minor, but crucial variation.

In the context of modern English, the author of those Latin words might just as well have said,

“Treat us however you jolly well like, but we’ll pay you back double for your trouble!”

or

“The Golden Rule died with the last of the New Testament saints. From now on, its payback time!”

I realize how hard it is to “turn the other cheek.” I’ve been there! And “walking a second mile” when we might have just as well walked one isn’t popular in our culture.

I know how difficult it can be to relinquish bitterness, and stretch out a forgiving hand. My friend, it’s d _ _ _ hard, and its flies in the face of everything we feel and believe about that word we call “fair.”

However, being fair to your neighbor is, in essence, also being fair to yourself. For you see, forgiveness is as much for the forgiver as it is for the forgiven.

There’s another phrase which reads,

“Bitterness is like taking poison and expecting the other guy to die”

 

So true. As we find ways to relinquish a spirit of bitterness or the mentality, and subsequent behavior of “getting even” we give ourselves a gift, as surely as we also give one to the offender.

One upmanship, feeding bitterness like you would a favorite pet, and withholding forgiveness is simply not good for you or me.

Revisit those slogans with which we began.

Which one works for you?

 

By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 14. Volumes 1-15, Copyright 2015.

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