Monday, October 24, 2011

Line by Line - Verse 49, Line 4

and to those who are not good (to me), I am also good;
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

I am also good to people who are not good.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Those who are not good, I am also good to them
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

and they're good to bad people.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~
While it's easy to be nice to those who are nice to us, we often have trouble being nice to those who are anything but nice. We want to give back what they dish out. If you're going to behave like an ass around me, then I'll act like an ass around you!!

Because we can't control the behavior of others, it serves us better to be the initiators of action, instead of being reflexive. When we initiate civility or kindness, we have the opportunity to introduce civility or kindness into situations where it might be lacking.

To view the Index page for this series to see what you may have missed or would like to read again, go here.

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