Life really is like a box of chocolates — bittersweet ones, that is. Photo credit: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/
If you follow us on Instagram (which you totally should, because we post the best photos — @CLIFrederick), you probably saw the photo we posted in honor of today being National Bittersweet Chocolate Day. There’s a day for everything, so why shouldn’t there be one to commemorate this most distinguished form of chocolate?
But, you know, chocolate really isn’t the only thing that can be bittersweet. In life, so the expression goes, you often have to take the good with the bad. We don’t always get the
chance to experience good times without having some bad to counter them. In fact, rarely, if ever, do we have a stretch of good fortune without feeling the effects of some hard-to-handle events. That’s just how life is — it’s bittersweet.
The problem is, as a society, we’re conditioned to subscribe to the “it could always be worse” mentality. We assign levels of pity to the people we see who have physical disabilities, and tend to avoid those with intellectual or mental disabilities. All people have challenges, and none are any more valid than others. The expression, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about,” is remarkably true. Instead of pouring our pity upon those we feel “have it much worse” than we do, why not just be kind to everyone? Why not show all people the same level of courtesy and decency we’d want shown to ourselves?
Life is bittersweet. You get some good; you get some bad. But none of us are immune to the bad, and none of us are more prone to receiving good that any others. It’s easy to stand on the outside and judge someone else’s life, but we can’t know what they’ve seen or experienced. So, instead of judging their entire lives by the outward functioning and appearance of their bodies, why not judge them by their character? Why not afford all people the chance to make their own first impression? Why not give all people the same kindness, empathy and respect we wish to be shown? After all, a little love can go a long way.