In the short-lived but brilliant show called Firefly, my favorite character, Simon, said the above quote to the somewhat crude Jayne, the guy with the girl's name. When I think of this quote, I start to think about pet peeves. Who doesn't have one or two pet peeves?
Mine are pretty standard, bad drivers, rudeness, people who are unkind to others, especially when the others are less fortunate, people who are fake, personal habits that are annoying, etc.
But there is one pet peeve that really upsets me more than the rest. I can't stand when people generalize. The other day my dad said something that amounted to "all women are bad drivers." That got me so angry that we had a tremendous fight about it. My dad is not a sexist person and the context is important because he had just been cut off by a woman who was driving with her cell phone at her ear. She wasn't paying attention to what she was doing and almost hit my dad. The thing that irritated me the most was not that he was generalizing about women, but that he was generalizing at all. It's like people who say that all Christians are narrow minded and hate everyone who is not a Christian. That's just not true. I have had to face that most of my life; the attitude that because I'm a Christian, I can't be loving to people who don't share my beliefs. That is totally stupid and every time I see that attitude I want to just show that person that I can love even those who are narrow minded about me and my beliefs.
But that's not the rant I want share today. Today's rant is about generalizing. People are individuals, unique and special. They should never be put into little boxes because of one trait or another. Don't generalize. Treat people the way they were meant to be treated, as unique and special individuals, worth your time and consideration.
Climbing off the soapbox now.
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