Mean

“Someday I'll be living in a big ol' city
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Someday I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Why you gotta be so mean?”

Mean – Taylor Swift

When I was a little girl I was told to say please and thank you, to respect my elders, and most importantly, to be nice to other people. And you know what? It wasn’t that hard. It really wasn’t hard to listen to teachers and sport coaches, and be nice to fellow school mates. And if you want to see me say please and thank you come with me to Subway “roast beef sub please. On roast garlic please. All the veges except capsicum please. Thank you!” I’m not saying I’m a perfectly good person because it’s easy to slip up, but these polite mannerisms have become a routine in my life.

But I’ve noticed a lot of spitefulness sneak into people’s lives. It’s easy to make an offhand comment which accidentally comes out nasty – and it’s just as easy to make a quick apology for it. But what is disturbingly easier is to make a comment on one of many social media sites without a care in the world. Yes, it’s easy to hide behind an ironic twitter handle and type away those spiteful comments to people you hardly know. I don’t understand these people. How can you get pleasure out of typing in a stupid catty comment, calling someone an immature name and probably sniggering about it by yourself?

Taylor Swift wrote a song about people who are mean to others and it’s a slap right back in their face – not by being mean in return, but by being the bigger person. She does it by saying these mean people are going to be nothing more than mean. These people who push you down and think they are so much than you, especially the ones who hide behind the computer screen. And think about it in your lives – you wouldn’t hesitate to refer to someone as mean in a conversation, because that’s what they are: mean. And a liar. And pathetic. And a lonely life. And mean.

We live in a wonderful world which brings beauty and joy and love for many people. But there are so many terrible things, from natural disasters to poverty to life destroying moments which can, and in some point in our lives probably will, affect us beyond what is imaginable. The world is wonderful, but it is also horrible, and it is a place which should never have time for pettiness and immaturity and mean people. Those who have better things to do than be mean will do so, and carry on in their lives and probably achieve much greater things and might even change this world, and all you will ever be is mean.