I haven't yet become "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells", firing off angry letters to the media and haranguing everyone with my complaints about the bus service, litter louts, too much sex and violence on TV or the price of marmalade.
All that would do is turn me into a sour, bitter individual who takes no pleasure in life and just spoils other people's enjoyment.
I make a point of focusing on the positive things and working around the negatives rather than dwelling on them. There's little I can do about the price of marmalade or erratic buses so why bang on about such things?
I've worked with people who habitually moaned about everything in sight, and it's very tedious. Even if you suggest a more positive way of looking at life, they don't want to know. They're locked into a nothing's-good-enough mindset.
If I encounter something that makes no sense to me, my first reaction isn't complaint but curiosity. I want to know what underlies this oddity, what it's all about.
It's easy to get caught up in all the knee-jerk vilification that pours out of the media and not take a step back and look at things more thoughtfully.
Apart from anything else, incessant grumbling is exhausting. All that rage and condemnation takes it out of you. I'm all for an easy life.
I can be a grumbly-grump! I can't live in that mode, though. Especially with so much to grumble about!
ReplyDeleteSandra: I haven't noticed you being particularly grumpy!
DeleteHave I lost my touch? 😄
DeleteSandra: I doubt it. I look forward to a really grumpy and crotchety post or two.
DeleteI tend to blow my top and then just get on with things.
ReplyDeleteFly: I don't even blow my top. I just shrug my shoulders and move on.
DeleteI guess I don't go out enough to know what everyone is grumbling about. Yes, prices are higher than they used to be but do we really want to go back to 1950s wages?
ReplyDeleteLinda
Linda: In the UK wages have been stagnant in real terms since 2010. No wonder people are complaining about the cost of living.
DeleteI bitch and moan about some things but not everything.
ReplyDeleteMary: The occasional bitch and moan are allowable.
DeleteRising costs could make me moan. But to whom?
ReplyDeleteJoanne: Exactly. If hugely rising costs are the result of corporate greed, who has any influence over the corporations?
DeleteI avoid moaning people as much as possible. We have moaning neighbour and over the garden fence they are moaning mostly about insignifant problems. Exhausting. People with real reasons to moan or complain are in general very discreet. Saīd and myself are positive thinking persons and do our best to enjoy our life and know why.
ReplyDeleteHannah
Hannah: I've always assumed you're a positive thinker who doesn't waste time moaning and carping. As you say, people with serious problems tend to be discreet about them.
DeleteI guess I am more exposed to the genuinely impoverished and challenged. Senior women particularly who need to vent now and again. And elders in constant pain and often grief and sadness when their older children die before them. I always tell them I have a listening ear. And I do. And help in my own limited capacity. And I myself whine to a few trusted friends who are free to whine back at me. As bottling up points to an earlier death at our ages.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
www: If you're genuinely impoverished and challenged, I guess you're entitled to moan a bit and demand whatever support you need. And yes, habitual bottling-up doesn't do any good.
DeleteColette: Not necessarily! Sometimes overcoming a few difficulties can also be the best life.
ReplyDeletenick, what is the one subject which guarantees to make you moan and grumble? :)
ReplyDeleteLiam: One thing that gets me fired up these days is self-service checkouts in supermarkets. If I've got 20 or 30 items in my trolley, no way am I going to check them all through myself. I want a staff member to do it. And I want a human being, not a machine.
DeleteI like working on a stress free life. I don't want to become the bitter old battle ax. Although it isn't always easy. Learning life isn't always fair from an early age helped. I don't let those haters steal my sunshine. I don't get all caught up in the social media/ political hatred. I just try to be a bit more understanding & less judgemental. In the home stretch of my life I just want to live my best.
ReplyDeletePaula: Me too, I don't get caught up in all the social media and political hostility. It's just a destructive waste of time.
Delete