We have all heard this phrase, either spoken or thought this way. The question is: ‘to be given what?’. Attention, recognition, agreement, positive feedback, things of this sort. Is there someone who does not need them? Maybe those rare ones who have reached such a level of wisdom, those who are like a Dalai Lama in their village.
The rest of us, need to calibrate ourselves with others, to be seen, heard, acknowledged, admired, accepted. Is there anything wrong with this? I do not think so! It is part of knowing who we are in this world, how others perceive us, what our place is on the journey we take with others.
But I do not have good news for those still waiting:
‘Pull up a chair so that you will not have to stand up, otherwise you will get varicose veins.’
In other words, we should not wait, we should not hope indefinitely, but learn to calibrate differently with the world. Everyone is absorbed by what they do, feel, think. I am not saying it is a good or a bad thing; it’s the way things are nowadays and it is better to adapt, to be part of our own world and not to delude ourselves like Madame Bovary.