Breaking Plastic Mirrors – Thoughts from May 22 and 25, 2022

May 22, 2022

Someone asked about the term “reality denier” that I use for people who deny basic realities and behave badly because of it. I use it mainly to call out people’s behavior instead of swearing at them and getting angry. It’s not a perfect term so I usually only use it when I’m alone. I don’t know if people are denying realities, ignoring them, or are blind to them. “Non-reality accepter” comes the closest to what I mean, but that doesn’t flow as easily as “reality denier”. Also, to explain what realities people are not accepting would have to be explained action by action. I don’t have the time or energy to explain why certain behaviors deny reality. The top things that most people do not accept involve logic, safety, kindness, or caring about others. These things can involve themselves, other people, or a combination of them.

Many people make bad decisions involving other people because of embarrassment, anger, hatred, or jealousy. People make personal bad decisions because of sadness, anxiety, depression, or loneliness. One negative emotion can lead to others. There is hardly ever one emotional cause for people’s bad behavior. People’s emotions are as complex as they are. We don’t make conscious decisions to become emotional and let those emotions affect our actions toward others or ourselves. We act most of the time on autopilot. If we are angry, we will make angry decisions. The more emotions we do not accept and deal with, the worse our automatic decisions will be. Emotions are not the problem, not dealing with our emotions is the problem.

One of my favorite things to do throughout my day is improve other people’s days. I mainly do this with humor, but it can also just be with treating others kindly. Sometimes people think they are being funny by teasing others, being sarcastic, or pointing out negative things with some humor thrown in. Negative humor is usually more negative than humorous. Improving other people’s days involves putting yourself in their shoes. You must understand what will improve their day. Sometimes it’s humor or it could be empathy, recognition, or simply treating them as a human being. This is the philosophy I call Other People Exist. It is one of the top concepts I developed for Reality Acceptance.

There is no opposite of hate. You can like something, love it, accept it, appreciate it, or obsess over it, but none of them are the opposite of hate. I hate it when that happens. Actually, I accept it when that happens.

May 25, 2022

Yesterday, I broke a large plastic mirror. I was pulling in somewhere and wasn’t thinking about the top of the truck I was driving. It was a tight spot I was pulling into and several other excuses to be determined at a future date. Luckily, I don’t believe that breaking a mirror does anything beyond making me wish I hadn’t broken it. Since it was a plastic mirror, it wasn’t as bad as breaking a glass one. I was going to say it embarrassed me, but I realize it didn’t. There were many witnesses around and I knew some of them. I couldn’t and didn’t deny it happened. I learned long ago that admitting what I did is always the best thing to do. These happenings also make the funniest stories. When I told other people, every single one of them said I was going to have seven years bad luck. It was a nice opportunity to tell them I don’t believe in that crap.