Learning to Live With People

Admittedly with all of us, there are some people in the world whom we like better than others. And if we were always to follow our personal preferences, quite likely we would see more of those we like more, and less of those we like less. But it isn’t always possible to isolate ourselves from those we like less. In the complexity of our living we are dependent upon many kinds of people. Furthermore, where freedom is a reality, men move about in pursuit of their own purposes, and the atmosphere and environment we live in are determined only partly by us, and partly by others. There are always among us those who don’t think as we think, those who don’t live as we live, those who don’t believe as we believe. There are those who annoy us and those who disagree with us, and we may sometimes feel an urge to assign them to some other orbit. But we can’t order other people out of existence simply because we don’t like them or don’t agree with them. And even supposing that we could, likely is wouldn’t be long before there would be others also whom we wouldn’t like. Even the most ruthless despots using the most ruthless methods have never been able to banish or otherwise remove all the men they mistrust. One of the lessons of life is that we have to learn to live with people whether we like them or not. This doesn’t mean that we have to partake of their ways or accept their beliefs or condone their conduct. And it certainly doesn’t mean that we should compromise our principles. It merely means recognition of the reality that we are all in this world together, that we all got here the same way, and that most of us are likely to linger here a little longer. And whether we like it or not, our choices after all are somewhat limited: We can live with people and try to get along with them, or we can live with people and not get along with them. Likely we wouldn’t like living alone, or any of the other possible alternatives. We all wish other men were better than they are. We all wish we were all better than we are. And we all have need to work at being better. Hereafter it may be more to our liking, but here and now on earth it is as it is. And so, it would seem that we had better learn to live with the people who are in the world with us. We had better learn to get along in our own generation.