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But Would You Want to Live With Him?
Sep. 17th, 2010 06:29 amI was reading a book of essays the other day when I had a few minutes. I happened upon William Makepeace Thackeray's essay on Jonathan Swift. In the course of the essay, I found it thought-provoking to read Thackeray, on the one hand, praising Swift's talent--and then turning to ask, "But would you want to live with him?" He went on to talk about Swift the man instead of Swift the wit, pretty well proving that it would be surprising should anyone want to live with him for very long.
I thought a long time about that concept after I put the book down. I feel as though there are so many people we profess to admire in our culture, but they are people that are not nice people or people we would like to live with. They look nice, they have exciting lives, but they're not kind or gentle at all. There are celebrities who want to tell me who I should vote for and to what charity I should send my money, yet in the same breath explain that they don't feel that they should be role models. There are people who are famous for being trashy, yet we all follow their exploits. There are people in private life who are generous yet bullying--and we shake our heads and say, "Well, he's hard to deal with, but he's so generous."
Do we get lured to quickly to the flash and sparkle of people who are fascinating and yet not worthy of imitation? Do we ever really think about the people we let into our lives through television and radio? Do we show that we value respect for others? Do we show that we value responsibility and responsible behaviors?
I tihnk that, like Thackeray, it may be a good idea to sometimes take a hard look at the people to whom we pay attention and ask ourselves, "But would I want to live with him?" "Would I want to spend a lot of time with her?"
I thought a long time about that concept after I put the book down. I feel as though there are so many people we profess to admire in our culture, but they are people that are not nice people or people we would like to live with. They look nice, they have exciting lives, but they're not kind or gentle at all. There are celebrities who want to tell me who I should vote for and to what charity I should send my money, yet in the same breath explain that they don't feel that they should be role models. There are people who are famous for being trashy, yet we all follow their exploits. There are people in private life who are generous yet bullying--and we shake our heads and say, "Well, he's hard to deal with, but he's so generous."
Do we get lured to quickly to the flash and sparkle of people who are fascinating and yet not worthy of imitation? Do we ever really think about the people we let into our lives through television and radio? Do we show that we value respect for others? Do we show that we value responsibility and responsible behaviors?
I tihnk that, like Thackeray, it may be a good idea to sometimes take a hard look at the people to whom we pay attention and ask ourselves, "But would I want to live with him?" "Would I want to spend a lot of time with her?"
