Never Fear their Worst

When faced with other people's destructive attitudes and behavior, I can love their best, and never fear their worst. ~ Courage to Change, page 72

Never fear the worst another can do to me?
I sat in a courtroom for too many years perhaps,
and surely everybody knows how wacky the world.
But then again, is that really something I've ever feared?
And is that something I fear from people around me?
No. I fear yelling, sarcasm, belittlement, chiding…
I fear words given and withheld, grimaces, sighs.
Holding me up for the contempt of others around me.
I remember three decades ago standing in a Taco Bell
wanting to melt through the floor, to disappear from humiliation
as the man standing beside me mocked the staff,
disparaged management. Do I really believe they remember him?
How could I  imagine they might still think me besmirched 
by association? What anyone else does is none of my business.
I can love them anyway, can walk away unscathed, can refuse to play.
I am master of my fate, captain of me ship.
I make amends for my own deficiencies, my statements, my deeds.
Theirs are not mine to claim, even when my heart avows them.