Love Month Series #3: The Paradoxical Commandments

Written by Dr. Kent M. Keith when he was 19, The Paradoxical Commandments  was found on the wall of Mother Teresa's children's home in Calcutta, India and has since then been associated with her. The commandments may, at first, seem self-contradictory and impossible to do. But if we think about it, there is an underlying truth  that makes the commandments doable. Love.
 

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway! 

Note: Dr. Keith M. Keith was born in New York and raised in Nebraska, California, Virginia, and Rhode Island before arriving in Hawaii in 1962. He graduated as student body president of Roosevelt High School in Honolulu in 1966. He earned a B.A. in Government from Harvard University, an M.A. in Philosophy and Politics from Oxford University, a Certificate in Japanese from Waseda University in Tokyo, a J.D. from the University of Hawaii, and an Ed. D. from the University of Southern California. He is a Rhodes Scholar. (Source: kentmkeith.com)

- Ariel Murphy