Noticing The Inverse

The past year, I've finally put into words something that has been true for me for a very long time.

If have a certain quality, we will notice the opposite quality in others.  Here is a partial list of inverse qualities that I have noticed.

Personal Quality	Opposite Or Inverse Quality That You Will Notice
Honesty	Lies and Lying
Skilled	Incompetent
Reliable	Unreliable
Polite	Rude
Clean	Dirty
Good Work	Bad Work
Hard Working	Lazy
Experienced	Inexperienced
Intelligence	Stupidity
Generous	Cheap
Fair	Unfair
Loyal	Disloyal
Knowledgeable	Ignorant
Informed	Uninformed
Educated	Uneducated
Law Abiding	Crime
Non-Corrupt	Corruption
Non-Political	Politics and game playing
You are in Love	You can tell when someone is not in Love
You have a nice house, car, equipment, etc., well maintained, fully operational, and works properly.	Unmaintained ugly house, car, or equipment that works like crap, or doesn't work at all.
Quiet	Loud people
Good driver	Bad driver
Non smoker	Smoke from smokers (cough)
Rich or poor	Poor or rich
Healthy or Sick	Sick or Healthy

And so on. 

The opposite of some of these qualities may not necessarily be obvious.  For instance, if you are rich, you may not know just what it is like to be poor.  You may need to become poor to notice the difference.  If you have always been healthy, you may not recognize the sickness of others right away.  However, once you have experienced the opposite, you will recognize both.  

Sometimes the positive thinkers will say that it is a bad mental attitude to notice these things.  If you focus your energy on it, you will attract it. 

However, my experience is that if you do good work, you will notice the co-workers that do not.  Especially when it's your job to correct their mess, or do their work that they didn't do! 

If you have to move from a nice area to another city where there is a lot of crime, or to another country where there is a lot of corruption, you are going to notice the difference.  You haven't changed your thinking at all to attract it.  Only your location.  But suddenly you notice!   It's now all around you.  

Nor does it explain why some bad things may happen to good people.  

In addition to the opposite, we can recognize similar qualities in others.  If you wax your car to a beautiful finish, you will notice when a stranger's car is also nicely waxed.   

People in sub cultures will also recognize each other quickly.  If you are a minority foreigner in another country, you will soon learn who all the ex-patriots are in your area.  Trend setters such as those already driving electric cars, instantly bond.  

I've read of some people that are hyper sensitive to all the chemicals in today's environment and food.  The different chemicals make them sick.  They can tell by their body's reactions what chemicals are in the environment.  And they know when they are in a healthy environment.  They don’t want to be sick, but their environment affects them.  

So, perhaps there is some truth that we attract certain things to ourselves.  However, such a simple concept, does not explain everything for me.  I'm not looking for all the bad qualities above.  But I do notice them when I see them.

How about you?  What are the opposite qualities in others that you notice??

Original post at:
http://rodgerswriting.blogspot.com/2011/05/noticing-inverse.html