When Being Kind Could Cost Your Life
You might want to draw the line with a narcissist
There is a saying that you can’t go wrong with kindness, but I disagree. Kindness is usually a good thing, and I agree that kindness matters, but some people do not deserve it. At the top of that list are people who do not have any empathy for other people. That would be a narcissist.
Eva was the secretary at the furniture factory where I applied for my first real job. I’d had babysitting jobs and housekeeping jobs, and I’d even worked as a cowhand one summer, but none of these jobs required a social security number. My parents, being fundamentalist Christians, equated government numbers with the mark of the beast. The result was that my siblings and I didn’t get a social security number at birth as most American kids did. They thought they were protecting us.
By the time I left my oppressive family and found some people willing to take me in, I was desperate to get a real job with a regular paycheck. When I applied for a position at a furniture factory, I felt conspicuous in my ragged T-shirt and ugly knit pants next to the pretty secretary who wore a hot pink miniskirt as she handed me an application.
I’d never filled out formal paperwork for a job before and hoped I was doing it right. My hand shook as I handed the papers back to the secretary with her…
