What if it was true that “in every human action, the actor was always trying only to improve the quality or duration of their life?” (Proposed by Wayland Myers.)
If that is true, then every time you’ve ever felt slighted, insulted, angered, scared, or enraged by someone else’s actions, in some way, that other person or party was just as scared or upset as you.
And so this does not mean that we have to allow others to walk all over us, or hurt us.
But what it does mean is that we can start communicating from where they are, in the hopes of closing the gap that separates us, rather than widening it.
Matt Fried 