Of course, he knew, in the deep recesses of the back of his mind, what the problem was: she thought he was maliciously trying to hurt her. But why he didn’t weave that fact into his grand narrative of love, redemption and self-discovery is something he was slow to bring to the front of his understanding. But he got there in the end, and it might just be the thing that saves his marriage. But let’s see. All that stuff is in the future yet.
Anyway – ego is the biggest obstacle to turning the other cheek. Why? I don’t know. But it’s what she told me as she passed my bed and so it must be true. I’d ask him, but he looks busy so let’s not disturb him right now. Maybe we’ll be able to ask him later.
When the moon got colonised, finally, by aliens, we turned the other cheek. It was easy to do that because they’d destroyed all our missiles and rocket ships, even the ones that Elon Musk hid in tunnels made by his Boring Company. They even winkled out all the fireworks stored in biscuit tins up and down the length of the reformed Euraustrokio, which seemed a little unnecessary, especially to all the kids whose New year celebrations were cut short by that act of pin-point quantum disintegration. The point being, though, that it was easy to turn the other cheek because we had absolutely no choice but to do so due to our complete inability to do anything else.
But if we had (or have) the choice – either as individuals or as a species – we should still choose to grin and bear the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune inflicted on us, whether or not they are aimed in our direction or not, for the simple reason that it is character-forming.
Of course, if those bolts and bombs hit us by accident then it’s easier to shrug them off, but if they were deliberately lobbed at us, then it’s more problematic – even if we just think that they were slung at us deliberately (or maliciously). Still, the point stands: it makes you a more psychologically resilient person if you choose to be happy if (or when) someone smacks you round the chops with a wet fish.
Someone told me that people who hurt others are operating from a low nature, but I’m not so sure about that. People are complicated things and what seems to be ‘low nature’ to one person is just ‘the way they’ve always been’ to another. I mean, take a simple example: singing in the shower. To one person this might be a very annoying thing, especially if it’s early in the morning and they went to bed late at night. But to the person tra-la-laaing away whilst scrubbing their back, this could be the most natural expression of the joy in their nature that they know. You see how difficult it is to say that this comes from a low nature?
She told him not to correct her. He told her that if he corrected her it was because she was wrong and that she should bear it. She was afraid that if she bore it then she would get a whole heap of other stuff deliberately heaped on her head so she told him, in no uncertain terms, where to shove his idea of ‘bearing it’. He then told her the thing that he should have told her right at the beginning; that she was the love of his life, the only person he’d ever wanted to marry and that he had no intention of deliberately hurting her. She realised that he was not malicious and decided to give him another chance. My crystal ball says that if he gets his sh..tuff in order then he’s got a chance of not losing her.
By the way, dude – what’s the biggest obstacle to turning the other cheek?
Erm … dunno. An addiction to chocolate?
Hmm.
Meanwhile, back on the moon, the aliens are planning to heap a whole load of indignity on the collective heads of humankind. But that’s another story, and it’s a long way off yet, so don’t worry about it (too much).
Robert C Day 