Unfair expectations are all too often the source of resentment in our daily lives.

We give a friend a wonderful gift, but they give us a weak smile and a halfhearted thank you. We help someone out of a jam, but a week later they’re badmouthing us to coworkers. We dedicate our lives to raising our children, but they tell their teacher daddy drinks too much.¹

At times like this, it is useful to remember the words of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius: “I am going to meet people today who talk too much—people who are selfish, egotistical, ungrateful. But I won’t be surprised or disturbed, for I couldn’t imagine a world without such people.”²

Put another way: people suck, and that’s okay.

This should have been posted yesterday (Jekyll YAML failure) when I wrote it, so I’m still counting my streak as being intact. The length of the post belies the amount of time it took to make words come out of my head.

This post is one part in a series on worry. Feel free to dip in anywhere or start at the beginning.