Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves

Have you heard the song "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves?"  Well, the lyrics talk about selling "another bottle of Dr. Good."  What I'd like to talk about is the selling of a "bill of goods" by those not-so-honest folks who look out for number one to the detriment of others. 

I recently felt like someone cut off my left foot while giving me a shoe to cover the right foot, and then told me I should be thankful for the one right shoe!  WHAT?  Really?

On top of that, I was one of the few willing to "sweep up the blood" of not only my own foot, but of the other feet that had been cut off as well.  I saw a bloody floor, so I picked up a mop.  Do you know that even people with severed feet do not think highly of a person coming in to clean up their blood?

There will always be people who will try to take advantage of you.  You just have to know how to recognize them when you see them.   So, I thought I'd give you a few pointers.

A truth which you might find very useful, states:  "Wherever you find a carping criticism about you by another, you will also find an underlying hidden transgression against you by that carping critic."  Let me give you an example.  You hear that Joe Blow is saying nasty things about you.  Your first instinct is to defend yourself against those nasty lies, right?   Well, since truth always has to exist for a lie to come along to twist it, your first action would be to place the truth where the lie now sits.  Do this by gathering actual data to combat the lie and present it in a sane manner.  This should at least expose the lies as such.

However, behind every lie or horrible criticism, there is a hidden transgression against you.  Did you get that?  If someone is dissing you, well, they've done something TO YOU or someone in their memory like you!   Joe Blow is saying nasty things about you behind your back?  Find out what Joe Blow has done TO YOU that he is hiding!   Bring that out into the open and clear it up, and you now have a clean canvass on which to paint.

Okay, so you might ask, "Well, all I did was help and I got slammed for it.  How does that fit into this?"  I will tell you how.

Remember earlier how I was using the analogy of my "cleaning up everyone's blood?"  What if, intentionally or even non-intentionally, the someone who was criticizing you had some piece of responsibility in the initial bloodshed itself?  Hmmmm.  What if they felt guilty to some degree over the bloodshed and then you come in like Florence Nightingale with a big mop and start mopping?  Are they going to be grateful or are they going to feel like you grabbed the very mop THEY should have picked up themselves?  Or, if they are partly responsible for the bloodshed, then they now feel more guilty for whatever they DID to create it.  So, the person cleaning up becomes a target of that guilt.

I know.  So, that's why you think that you should just stop helping in order to cover your own butt.    If you do that, you will just be hand-cuffing your own hands...

The answer to anything is to communicate, communicate, communicate.   People are basically GOOD!  If they weren't, they would not feel guilty for anything, now would they?  So, you are actually doing them a favor by purging them of that thing for which they feel guilty.  It is very freeing for them, and thus for you!  But, it is not easy to get through a lightning storm.

A good friend, Hollie, shared some Native American wisdom last night.

She asked me, "Is it better to be a Buffalo or a Cow?"

I replied that I did not know, and she then said, "In a lightning storm, the cow runs from the lightning chasing it, but the buffalo runs through the storm and past it."

"I guess I'd rather be a buffalo!"


I don't think that PEOPLE are the "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" of our lives.  I think the lack of understanding of true communication, along with the mechanisms of transgressions and their resultant behavioral patterns, are the real culprits!

Jesus said, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Shakespeare said, "The criminal doth protest too much!"

L. Ron Hubbard said, "Full responsibility is not fault; it is recognition of being cause."

I say, "Do not just blame others for your own condition.  Learn how to unravel the ingredients of any given situation by understanding all the parts.  Through knowledge and responsibility we can all be more responsible for our fellows and control the lives of all concerned toward a better future!"

Live, learn, grow, love, prosper in all areas.  We are the captains of our own ship.  It is our responsibility to know how to read the map.  Happier sailing to you all!