Priceless

You know the tag line, "For everything else, there's MasterCard." And I can't think of anything more priceless or precious than friends. Unfortunately, I haven't always esteemed their value.

Like so many of us (whether we admit the truth or not) much of my life I've felt inferior. In grade school I learned to read by doing so aloud in a remedial class—special ed. I never lettered in any sport in high school. I didn't excel academically. In college, I fared even worse. If I'd had enough money to continue, I would have flunked out. I never learned to type. And yet, today I'm a writer.

Now, you may wonder what that has to do with how I view others. Simple. We only love others to the degree and in the manner that we love ourselves. Which is why the admonishment to love others as we love ourselves seems to be more of a plea that we should love and forgive ourselves first, so that we can forgive and love others.

So, when did I learn my lesson? When I listened to what others said. One man told me, "Be good to yourself." On another occasion I felt the distinct impression that I should love myself as I love others—unconditionally—because that's how I am loved.

When I did that I began to change. I've become more content with who I am, and who I'm not. I've learned to be less critical of my imperfections and more accepting of my strengths.

So now, I value people because people are valuable. And it doesn't matter to me if someone is a CEO or a janitor, a barber or a doctor, blue collar or white collar, a soccer mom or founder of her own business. Because regardless of what Bruce Wayne (a.k.a. Batman) thinks, it's not what we do that defines who we are, it's who we are that defines what we do.