Does familiarity give us the right to cruelty?

As blissful as my summer has been, there have been some rude awakenings. Lately, I have spending a lot of time with my family and extended family; besides the love between us all, I unfortunately also noticed the deceitful and degrading behavior that spreads like wildfire.


In today's society, familiarity seems to grant us permission to put down, and lie to one another. I'm doing that with my closest friends and my own family. I realize it needs to stop. Around my friends I'm often bluntly sarcastic, and, my family members can be overly critical of my action and I hide and lie way too often to my own family. It's not just me and my family that acts this way. It's a shame that comfort in this society translate to poor behavior. As hippie-ish as this sounds, I truly think constant compassion for oneself and for one another is the key to beauty and happiness. We should treat ourselves, our family, our friends and every person we encounter with compassion.