'Without darkness, there is no light'
As a result of being such a mean person, when I am nice to people, the value is so much more substantial. A fairly significant event that displays this is when I was in year three and a girl called Lindsay and I were playing on the playground at lunch. The school I went to had a wooden play ground and there were many gaps in the equipment between where the timber had been drilled in. I remember on this particular day, we were on the very highest part of the castle like playground discussing birthstones because Lindsay had a ring that represented hers. Suddenly, she dropped her ring and after ricocheting of one piece of wood after the other, it finally hit the ground which was covered by timber all around. Lindsay began crying and I didn't know what to do. So I offered to try and get it. All I recall is her thanking me so much and talking about how out of character it was for me to do this. The funny part of the story was when I got my arm stuck in between the two panels of wood and the staffroom kitchen was raided for butter to get it out. That's besides the point though.
Like the impact of my kindness when I was known as someone who expels quite the opposite traits, the occurrence of good things in this world can have the same effect. Because the world has so much chaos and bad things going on, when something good happens, it's almost like a miracle to some people.
Somewhat like 'without darkness there is no light and without sorrow there is no joy' - We never truly appreciate the significance of something positive if we don't know the impact of something negative. I remember feeling such a sense of goodness when I eventually got the ring out and the school gave me one of those 'courageous keys' from the keys of success (obviously not enough to sway me though)
Often people tell me that they never know whether I'm being serious or sarcastic when I compliment them or do a nice gesture and this is also evident in the things we experience. We're always told to see the wider context of life and the events we endure. Sometimes, we find it hard to see past the fact that we are going through such a crappy experience and consider that maybe it has the potential to be a good one. Just like how my comments can sound sarcastic but actually they have good intentions.
Perhaps we are just over-complicating life or perhaps we are under-estimating the concept of life but either way, the value of good things compensates the negative things in life because of the negative things in life. Some may say that we shouldn't have to experience those negative experiences at all but I believe it's necessary in being able to appreciate the positives. Life would get boring without that.
