In a Period of Pressure

Most of us are well aware that we are living in a period of pressure – a pressure that seems to be felt at every level of life: the pressure of complexity, the pressure of anxiety, the pressure of responsibility, the pressure of competition, which is ever present – for whoever finds something bigger and better is going to find that others are going to find something still bigger and still better.

And one result of pressure is impatience – impatience with all of its side symptoms: quick judgment, quick temper, quick criticism – which are so often evidence both in private and in public places.

We often aggravate and irritate each other. We all have better days than others, and some that are worse; and times when we wish we hadn’t been so selfish, times when we wish we hadn’t been caustic and critical; times when we say some things we wish we hadn’t said and make decisions we wish we hadn’t made – followed by times to ponder and times to repent. And likely there never was a time in human history when men couldn’t find much to criticize, much to misjudge, much to misunderstand.

Even in families there is much to misjudge. Sometimes children are misjudged as to the real reasons for their moods and temperament – and parents also may be misjudged in many matters.

People are not perfect; they make mistakes – and they simply have to do the best they can, with all the circumstances considered – which calls to mind, from Abraham Lincoln, a single short sentence: “I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so.” And this is a plea, in an age of pressure, in an age of impatience, in an age of anxiety, to be more understanding, more gentle in judgment, more willing to withhold criticism until we know more fully the facts – and to be a little more kind and considerate in all relationships of life.

And while we may reserve the right to criticize, we ought always to do so with some awareness that we seldom know the full facts.