Too Cool for School?

“The true means of being misled is to believe oneself finer than the others.”

~François de la Rochefoucauld.

It leaves a distinctly sour taste in our mouths and within our conscious minds as we shrug our metaphorical shoulders. It’s the spat of pride, that sense that someone is better than we are, and don’t they just know it.

Let us explore it more deeply.

In all walks of life we find the person thinking they’re superior to their contemporaries—the above quote spins their ‘wisdom’ over on top of them, however. Watch and wait; they’ll soon be caused to eat humble pie—if, that is, they have the character capability to do that. Many simply ignore the behest of these natural consequences, going on in their arrogant pride, seemingly never learning their lessons in life.

This is, of course, a personal reminder to us—if we’re caused to reflect—that we all have a tinge of hypocrisy to deal with, saving none. Gee, I can recall the shrill sweated brow as I’ve suddenly realised my own pomposity!—how tolerant some people have been with me.

Thinking very introspectively helps us have some level of pity for the person deluded under their own steam and in overdrive. We sense a very intrinsic part of ourselves in their show of arrogance—if we’re honest. This is what sticks in our throats at the subconscious level.

It is a great travesty to be ‘too cool for school’—which is a very Gen Y term for those who have that rancid ability to turn people off in their posh approach to life.

But what about us? How do we patiently deal with these people who’ve clearly got a superiority complex?

The mature mind can deal with a situation like this in quite the way the proud person wants. They can submit their will to the situation and give the person who’s too cool for school their way provided it’s not going to hurt anyone. They see that the person here is somewhat deluded and instead of being offended—and potentially either hurting or offending this person in their response—they express empathy through coming alongside them. It pays to be inoffendable.

At the end of the day we are all better off accepting that each and every human being is from God and is loved by God, no matter their quirks and ‘deficiencies,’ and if God loves everyone we ought to love them too.

Life is always better that way. Love harder.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.