Tuesday, January 7, 2025
I know it seems innocent and well-meaning, but we must come to the truth that “making” someone happy is like “making” the sun shine. And conversely, we must come to the savage truth that “making” someone irritated is like making it hot outside. Outside temperature is one thing. Indoors, it’s a little bit different.
We’ve got to keep people happy. We’ve got to keep them entertained. We’ve got to keep them well-fed. We’ve got to keep them from being bored. We’ve got to make them feel good about themselves. We’ve got to make them like us. We might even have to make them go away. Yes, it’s a lot of work to be the puppet master, pulling all the strings and keeping everything temperate.
The sun is not attached to a rheostat or a thermostat. It’s not your responsibility to keep anyone happy, and it’s not your responsibility to keep anyone on edge. You can’t even do that for yourself, for God’s sake. How do you cool it, please it, or temper it? The best you can do is monitor the heat level within.
If I can’t control my own emotions, my temper, my level of contentment, or my thoughts, how can I control those same things in others? Outside doesn’t have a thermostat. Nor does the inside, but I can monitor the temperature more carefully within myself. I do my best to release and relax when I notice the heat. The temperature likely comes down, with practice. I might lose my cool. I might get heated. But I’ve got enough to monitor on my own. “Controlling” the temperature inside is iffy at best. Controlling it on the outside is insidiously futile. Best to leave others to monitor their own internal temperature. That’s the only hope for cooling it – monitoring the temperature from within ourselves.