Should We Care?

Do you care what people think of you? Do I? Should we?

These questions are asked of us day in and day out. Not by any political poll, not by our schools, our churches, our family or friends. By ourselves. We ask ourselves this question because it is such a crucial one to know the answer to. From this answer stems the basics upon which we build our interactions with the world around us.

Do we worry? Do we assert ourselves? Do we let life pass us by in a morbid state of apathy?

These are the decisions we have to make as people. People in a society of other people in a society of people. And everything you do, every action you take affects that chain of events, until at long last it comes around to you.

Now, there's no way of knowing when these actions either backfire or pay off, but one can do far more good by assuming that their actions will come back around than he who doesn't care.

So, do I care what people think of me?

Depends on what they think. But to be serious, yes. I do care. And I'm not ashamed about it. I find nothing wrong with the caring. Where the problems start is when people begin to let it affect them, change them, destroy them.

Part of it is curiosity. Part of me wants to know how I come off. What I look like. Imagine a world without mirrors. A world where you could never see your own face. That's what it'd be like if nobody cared what people thought of them. The opinions of the people around us are what act as a check against untamed agression. Okay, maybe not agression. But you get my point. A society built on expectation helps to keep order. (Let's not delve into the cons of an expectant society now... that's another story entirely).

The other part, the important part, is that I just might find that what others think of me - no matter how right or wrong it may seem at the time - to be far more helpful than anything I can muster within myself.

YOU DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING and neither do I.