One of the many weapons we use to castigate people we disapprove of is sarcasm. True, it relieves our pent-up feelings, and if our remarks are really pointed, gives us a certain satisfaction.
Repugnant as it is in itself, sarcasm becomes even more distasteful when we find it comes from the Greek very "sarcazo," which means to tear flesh. It is that form of irony in which the speaker is motivated by scorn.
If I have ever used this weapon against another person, I promise myself not to do it again. I have no right to scorn anyone, since I can never know what created their need to behave as they do.
Today I will remember to make an effort to blend gentleness with firmness to add a note of harmony to my relations with others instead of tearing and destroying. I will realize that the wounds made by sarcasm are slow to heal, and may defer the longed-for improvement in my life.
O.D.A.T. Alanon
A scorner seeks wisdom, and finds it not: but knowledge is easy unto him that understands.
Proverbs 14:6
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