Newton's Third Law - Action and Reaction

a while back i found out that she shared a piece of my privacy to another friend. in the past, i would've been outraged if someone i regard as a dear friend did something like that to me. i'd call her out and confront her for betraying me. but age has a way of mollifying us. we start to accept that people are all selfish beings. no need to arouse any contempt because this is just the way it is (unless you're a saint).

mortals. anything that doesn't have to do with themselves matters to them no more than a plate of greens is to the dog. hence i accept the act of betrayal without much indignation, because i understand that it's not so much as that particular friend who wishes to betray me, as to the compelling human nature that lives in all of us. after all, if it weren't her who spilled my privacy, it would've been another. so technically, who did it didn't really matter. it would've been done one way or another, someday sometime. perhaps one could even go as far to say, i probably didn't care much about the "secret", because if i did, i would've just kept it to myself. heck if Freud was alive, he just might theorize that it must have been my subconsciousness that wanted others to know, which in turn propelled me to tell this friend in the first place. but of course, as far as my consciousness goes, i had no intention to let anyone else know other than the few friends i've told. yet as it turns out, my intentions obviously had no bearing on the occurrence of events. again, all these have only come to strengthen my philosophy that we should never expect anything from anyone. everything we do, we should do it only because we want to, and not for any gain or return as a result of our actions.

in a conversation with a friend, she thought it was outrageous for my friend to spill my stuff to another friend. i do agree that to a certain extent, that was morally uncalled for. but when i made the decision to tell the handful of people around me, i have already taken into account that things like these would happen. thus i bear no grudge against anyone. one thing i have to clarify though: it's true i have little, if any, expectations from people; but that doesn't mean i have little faith in people. i still believe, and i'm still largely an optimist, but i don't presume the rest of the world to be like me. this way, when shitty things happen, it's much easier to get over it. :)

it's been a long day. i only write this in a whim, after an MSN chat with a friend, else i wouldn't have brought it up. i should go back to study. but before i end this post, i'd like to share these words of wisdom i came across the other day. it's so simple yet it applies to almost every occasion: we need to learn about people unlike ourselves. indeed. doing that would allow us to broaden our horizons and accept things more easily, and take life with a pinch of sodium chloride.

oh, and also, Newton's 3rd Law doesn't hold true every time. there are times when people do nasty things to you and you get to choose not to return an eye for an eye; at other times, we can do good without awaiting commendation or gratitude. cheers, everyone.