Maxim Monday: Speak Well of Everyone

This one is tricky. I don’t like to gossip, although sometimes it feels good. I want to speak well of everyone, but sometimes people make it so hard to do!

Sometimes other people are awful. Instead of speaking ill of them, I’ve been learning to communicate how I feel and what my experience has been. This allows others to come to their own conclusions, expresses the truth my experience, but can allow me more space to be compassionate toward some one who has treated me poorly. I can say “I do not like so-and-so for X reason,” rather than “X is a loser.”

Is this violating the spirit of this Maxim? I don’t think so. If we try to say something nice about every one, that may actually be spreading falsehoods. But we can speak the good things we know about people when possible, and when necessary to bring up the negative sides we can choose to speak from experience, rather than name calling and blanket statements of worth.