Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Exercising Self restraint

In life we all have to learn to exercise self restraint, whether it be in our diet, in our spending, in our consuming alcohol, in our desire to acquire, in competing with the Joneses, in disciplining our children just to name a few. My vice is the thoughts and opinions that run through my head. More and more in my personal and professional life I find myself having to exercise a great deal of self control in my verbal expression of what's on my mind.  There are times when I have to calm the voices in my head and basically stifle them from being expressed aloud. Standing in the grocery line behind a what appears to be a mom of 4 kids representing the United nations, who is unkempt and still in her pajamas at one in the afternoon, observing all the junk food and soda she is 'checking out' while she man handles one of her disorderly children and drops the f- bomb several times at them. Her order totals well over $300 and she asks the cashier to get her a pack of Newport while she swipes her access card....need I SAY anymore....well you can THINK it but you can't SAY it out loud.  I exercise self restraint.  Watching a 40 year old, strapping, well built man hop out of his souped up truck that he parked in the handicapped spot in front of the liquor store......SELF RESTRAINT....Sitting in McDonalds Play areas with my young son and his friend for lunch while several tattooed and pierced teenagers dressed in goth with their pants below their butt cheeks have some kind of loud conversation where every other word is either dude or the f bomb.......SELF RESTRAINT. Sitting at my desk day after day listening to the same coworkers nearby complain endlessly about their life, their job and their wages SELF RESTRAINT .  Watching a good friend in a bad relationship keep going back for more and more in a self destructive pattern....SELF RESTRAINT...so often my mind races and thoughts emerge and time after time I EXERCISE SELF RESTRAINT. I get a lot of exercise in that department and you would think it gets easier with time - NOT......soon I may have to carry a roll of duct tape around with me so I can refrain from exercising my right to freedom of speech.  Is there a Mental health disorder for thinking the truth- a truth that others do not want to hear that is?????? I would think that I have become somewhat of a professional at this kind of self restraint by now but each time I succumb to it I feel a sense of betrayal to myself...my morals and values and my character.....by exercising this Self restraint I am lowering myself to the person level who has elicited these 'thoughts' in me....by accepting and tolerating this am I not contributing to the crumbling moral fiber of our society?  Am I not enabling these mindsets to proliferate and destroy the basic values upon which life depends upon? Is is a tough trade off this SELF RESTRAINT, keeping my thoughts to myself and standing by and watch the vicious cycle repeat itself...watch the moral majority become dying breed and  social justice a thing of the past all so that people can LIVE HOW THEY WANT AND DO WHAT THEY WANT WHEN THEY WANT with no sense of self restraint at all......