22. What’s good for the goose…

“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” We have heard this saying nearly all our lives. What does that saying actually mean?

It deals with comparing ourselves with other people. What’s good for you is good for me. Whatever you need to exist, that’s what I need, too, in exactly the same amounts. Whatever it is that you like, I like that, too. It’s the “me too” thinking.

It means we must all think, act, move and live in the same way. Our desires must be the same. It means that society believed we must all be treated the same, following the same rules all the time. We should develop like little human “robots,” none of us being really special.

We each want to feel special and unique. In fact, we are all different, yet we are all treated the same. Ashy personality should not be treated the same as a more aggressive person.

Things that hurt some people never bother others. Their personality accepts the treatment, sluffs it off and keeps on going. A more timid personality may revert into a scared little person, never revealing their true personality for fear of being hurt or treated the same.

There are reasons we are all treated the same. For one, we haven’t got time to cater to each individual need, I am told, so we are all treated like cattle, even if we are chickens.

We all eat the same food, prepared in the same way when we are eating in a cafe, and we make our taste buds adjust. If we want to eat, we eat what is put in front of us. If I can eat it, so can you. Any of us go through life eating what we hate.

I am different. I must be handled with care. I need more of certain things to exist. I needed more love from Mama than my other brothers. They were different.

Yet sometimes my mom gave me more attention than she did them, and they rebuked her by telling her she was spoiling me. No, she knew all her children, and it’s because of this treatment that I am what I am today. I did not grow up jealous of my other brothers. We never compared ourselves with each other.

We are often selfish. Even when we do not need the attention, we insist on being treated the same. We do not give the same as the person who really needs it gives back.