A Problem Student as a Conduit for Spiritual Awakening

So I've been having altercations with one of my students for the past couple of weeks, and today he flipped out again, but this time it was directed toward one of his classmates instead of me. This unfortunate incident allowed me to view the situation from the perspective of an outsider, and I was finally able to have a good internal laugh at his expense. That's not to say that I condone his behavior; it's just that before, I was too offended to find humor in the situation. What is unfortunate is that it took him targeting someone else for me to find said humor. I'm hoping his classmate is less sensitive than I.

So here's the deal with....let's call him Xavier. Xavier has delusions of grandeur. He thinks he's a supergenius who has the uncanny ability to out-everything everyone. He gets extremely frustrated and combative any time anyone a) doesn't recognize his supergeniushood or b) doesn't exhibit supergeniushood him or herself. The thing is Xavier's personality type is not at all uncommon. It may be a rather extreme case, but I think most people have the tendency to become frustrated when others don't behave as we would have them behave - when the order of the universe thwarts our desires.

After I couldn't help but chortle at Xavier's preposterous, aneurysm-inducing behavior, I came to recognize something of myself in that behavior. Though I don't believe I have any delusions of grandeur or supergeniushood, I will admit to being a bit of an elitist. I get rather frustrated rather often at people who act in ways that I would deem ignorant, inefficient or irresponsible. (Let's call them the three Rs just for shits and giggles!) I also tend to dwell in that frustration and engage in the occasional flip-out. What Xavier allowed me to realize today is that such reactions do nothing but make an ass out of the reactor. Of course, I always knew that fist-shaking and screaming within the confines of my own vehicle is not going to make senile, half-blind grandpa drive any closer to the speed limit, but I rarely get to witness my reactions from the outside. And quite frankly, I have no desire to ever make an ass out of myself the way Xavier made an ass out of himself today.

To backtrack a bit, as I mentioned, Xavier's behavior (:)), though extreme, is not uncommon. The neuroses I have exhibited for much of my life stem, in large part, from being reprimanded, attacked and ridiculed by people whose desires or ideals I have inadvertently thwarted simply by living my life and being myself. Believe it or not, some people get horribly offended by my tattoos, vegetarianism, love of the f-bomb and communistic ideals. Some people get offended when homosexuals have sex with each other in the privacy of their own bedrooms. Hell, I hate Frats and Sororities even though I've never been directly wronged by any of them.

We all have our ideals, our concept of an ideal world. But all of our concepts are different, varying slightly or dramatically. That is the world in which we live. We do not have the right to attack each other because our very being may offend one another. That path will never change or accomplish anything but to perpetuate negativity. As Confucius, the Buddha and many other wise sages have said for millennia, the flow of life is already happening. All of our paths (humans, animals, flora, elements, molecules, etc.) comprise that flow. It would behoove us all to harmonize with it. The world is as it is, and that greater life force will flow much easier when we stop trying to dam it up all the time.