 "Playing favorites" (not liking everyone)
In a similar vein to Michelle's small talk thread, I find it draining to have to interact with people on a regular basis who are at a very low level of awareness. I'm not passing judgement on them (or am I?) so much as picking up the familiar sense that nothing on my mind would lead to anything other than a confused and grudgingly polite nod from them. It knocks my inspiration down a notch or two just to walk past them.
Then there are other people that I really want to know better, people that I get a great general vibe from, but don't necessarily have substantial grounds for this other than a gut feeling or general human attraction.
Are the habits I've involuntarily formed to "shield" me from group #1 (i.e. tuning people out) causing me to not get as close to group #2 as I'd like? Should I not feel so guilty about wanting to "play favorites"? As Steve frames it, we are all like parts of one organism, and it does us no good to wish any harm to anyone -- I don't wish harm to anyone, but there are a lot of people I just don't personally want to interact with. But would my relationships with my favorite people benefit from a personal re-framing of all the people I feel negatively towards?  |