Wielding power of others

As a general rule of thumb, it's an impulse not to be indulged under any circumstance.

It comes straight from the ego that will jump at the opportunity to prove its superiority or correctness and so feed its sense of self.

You ask a friend for $1 to help pay for a subway ride.

She denies your request.

Weeks later she then asks you for a favor...

What do you do?

Retaliate? Try and prove a point? Get indignant? Judge?

This is the path that most people choose, it is an essentially childish response.

Internally, it doesn't feel to good to do so.

Because it's like a sin, where sin is defined as abandoning your Self.

To go down that path is to invest in your ego, your false sense of self.

If this is a friend who always takes but never gives, there is a more neutral, less charged way to handle the situation that doesn't involve wielding your power position.

Honest communication.

"I'm not so inclined to give to you because you never seem to give yourself, it's frustrating!"

Here there is no blame. No judgment. Just a statement of what is.

Maybe then she realizes the error.

Fighting always begets fighting until somebody drops an atomic bomb.

And it all starts by reacting to a judgment, even a simple one such as "that was wrong."