Ed Sheeran is appalled by the hateful tweets he gets from so called followers. I heard this on BBC yesterday. My heart goes out to him. He is wondering why people have to be so mean to him. Why do people pour hate on other people? I have been wondering the same thing for a long time.
In thinking about this question from Mr Sheeran's point of view, I can only surmise that much of the hate he receives has to do with envy. Fret not yourself, Mr Sheeran. As far as I heard, you have done nothing to deserve the hate you are getting. You are a talented pop star. You have found success because you have shared your talents with the world, giving us "hours and hours" of pleasure. But the fact is, some people will hate you for it. It makes no sense, but that is how it is. Quit Twitter if you must. But don't quit being who you are and don't quit doing your thing. I, for one, thank you for it.
But in general, I think the reason many people pour hate on other people is that they just don't know how to love. They may have spent their entire lives being denied love by significant others. And they have modelled hateful behaviours from their environments. There are some people who are just walking cauldrons of hate, waiting to spill it on whoever is luckless enough to come into their cross-hairs. (And I am not just talking about the outright narcissists and psychopaths who are just the way they are and nothing can change them. No doubt, some of these types have also been tweeting hate to Mr Sheeran.) I am talking about people who would be loving people if they had ever learnt how to love. You can't give what you don't have. So, in response to the generosity and love they are shown by others, all they are programmed to do is return hate. I can't think of any other way to explain it. That is what I see so that I what I am saying. It is beyond sad.
But it is not hopeless. Regardless of how bad the hate is, the solution to this world full of haters is to not become one too. Our response to the hate we receive is to return love. It is hard to do. I know it is hard. Some of the things that hate-filled people say and do to others are often hard to forgive. But even if we struggle to forgive people (as I do), we must make sure that we do not return hate for hate. We must return love for hate. We must at least try. If each and every one of us could just try this, even for one day, I believe we would shock ourselves to see how much we have transformed our experience of life.
I say, "live love," not hate.
"What is love?" Well, that is for another post.
Dawn Marie Roper
"Justice, Truth Be Ours Forever"
