Dear hopeforamal:
Interesting, my mother is Moroccan and I LIVED with the mentality that what OTHER people think is the most important thing in the world. It used to drive me crazy. Until recently. I was going crazy: WHO are these people, why was she so scared to death about what they were thinking? She worked hard, physically for food and clothing and taking care of physical needs of her two daughters. THOSE people didn’t help her- why did she care so much about what THEY were thinking? She was willing to do anything to satisfy what she thought they wanted at the expense of herself and of me. I was sacrificed in the alter of what others think. It was all about how others see us- M.I.S.E.R.Y is what it was. I got into the habit of automatically seeing things through other people’s eyes, not pausing to see things through my own. Of course, I was projecting, but still my point of view was the other person.

It was aexhausting. It is sick, really. The way to live is to look at life from one own’s eyes, as the center of your own life.
anita