PRAISE.
Can you take it?
Praise. How do you react when someone compliments you for some little act they appreciated?
It may puzzle you to find that many people, cannot handle praise very well. And yet, it has long ago been realized that people get a pretty accurate estimate of who and what we really are from the manner in which we respond to a compliment.
Today, more than ever before, when communications place us in actual contact with so many more people than ever before, it is nice to be appreciated. How do you react when someone says you are doing a fine job at whatever it is you do?
Oh, yes. It does happen.
Every time you do anything for someone else and they say "Thank you!", they are praising your conduct. We are complemented a dozen times a day and let such praise drift by without reaction. You can always acknowledged having heard the praise, by simply "I'm glad I could help out." Or - " Others do it for me!' or. You say something tending to discount the important of it all. There's no reason for you to look away, drag the toe of your shoe in the dust and turn red. Learn to express sincere praise for others when they do their work well, or extend a special kindness to you or to others you know to be needy and worthy.
Praise pales promptly, too, as a rule. "If you don't use it you lose it!" is a fine, old truism which applies to almost any value in living. It's true of praise - coming and going. If it concerns you that you are not getting the praise you think you deserve, you have special - but not exceptionally rare - problem.
Ovid, who thought about such things as this back in the early AD times ,when trying to determine the character a newcomer asked: "And, how does he receive praise?"
People judge our basic personality though such simple tests They do so without thinking about it. hey don't conduct a survey to determine how it could be to their advantage do so. Praise stems from keep within our true being.
And, it quickly becomes a two-way street, as well. And example: Many years ago a former resident of Soviet Russia wrote what I considered to be a fine one. He had revisited his home area during one of those “de-freezing” lulls Stalin tried. He wrote vividly of his reactions on going home. The book was published here under the title:"House Without a Roof” and a great many potential readers did not realize it was a book about Soviet culture. It dealt with Soviet plans to build many structures ...sturdy walls but never completed to the point at which they could support a “roof” on any of them. I liked the book the very much and I wrote to the author in care of the publisher of the book. A few weeks later I had generous "Thank you" letter from the famed writer - Maurice Hindus -in response to my “Thank You.” I treasure that letter in which he enlarged upon much that had been left unsaid in the book.
Praise that which you find to be honest, sincere and good. It is rewarding in so many ways.
A. L. M. April 15. 2003 [c563wds]
