Confucius said, "What you do not want
Done to yourself, do not do
To others."
Later, Jesus said, "Do unto others
As you would have done unto you."

But now, we've got to understand
A complicated humanity.

The thing that you would not want done to you
Is exactly the thing that someone else desires.
And the thing that turns you on,
Throws wet blankets on the fires of another.

The fact that you would want someone to notice you
And tell you how nice you look today,
Baffles another and vexes them.
They can hardly say hello,
And certainly don't feel the need to know
Your opinions regarding them.

Now I'm not Buddha, Krishna, Jesus,
Confucius, Plato or Marcus Aurelius,
And I don't have some big answer
To how we ought to live today.
I'm just a girl who notices
That there is a lot of miscommunication,
And a lot of misunderstanding
These days,
And I'm wondering if it's time
To dig deeper into the way we understand the Golden Rule.

For opposites attract, so maybe
Our new school of thought should be
That we should do to someone else
Precisely the thing we don't want done to us.
How's that for convoluted?

-jenn