Tags
bullies, cuz i'm an asshole, facepalm, growing pains, karma is a bitch, learning curve, mindfulness, things that happened, walking red flag
So I wrote a bit of a rant over at my livejournal about something that’s been bothering me all week. This – acquaintance of mine finally wore out his welcome on my Facebook page. His vitriol and general derision of all things not himself got quite tiresome. [Though in retrospect I should probably have expected no less from someone who would write a book called FUCK YOU. He may have removed it from google books, but he still went so far as to publish the thing in the first place.] Now his exiting shots were meant to wound and to make me feel bad about myself and my choices, but it just makes me think awfully hard about how people deal with life.
I feel sorry for the little shit after it all. His love life reads more like a stalker novel rather than a romantic comedy. Lord knows if he’s employed and he spends almost the entirety of his online life spewing vitriol and hate at people he deems “retards” because they’re too stupid to be happy. [That or youtube videos of his baking prowess.] I giggled at his evolving love-hate relationship with his Chromebook. At first it was the best invention since sliced bread, then over the weeks his Facebook posts degenerated into spastic hate mail on how the product sucked. I wonder sometimes how he never factored in user error. But I digress. This guy who wrote a book that was about shaming stupid people for being stupid (I’m not kidding) should really have been talking to himself.
He did get one thing right though, so far as I can recall. Happiness does come from within. It is a choice. It does not come from the things you own or the things you accomplish – though those can certainly improve things. Yes, I could spend a lot of time lamenting the fact that I am not working in the field I trained for, or any number of other things, but what good would that do? Truth is, I like writing on my own terms and getting paid for things I LIKE to write is just a bonus. Working a 9-5 using other skills is a means to support my writing habit. Bottom line is that I accept that I am not a successful novelist or copywriter at this time. I accept that I’m working a job that is less than ideal. I accept that that job pays the bills and allows me the freedom of two days a week in which to do what I love.
I am a believer in mindfulness. I believe in treating others in a manner that I would like to see reciprocated. Shaming people and calling them out for their failures is only going to perpetuate that negative behaviour. One of the girls I work with is Korean and she is always commenting on how I will talk to anyone; how I hold doors open and thank people for service. It never occurred to me that this should be strange. People are people, whether they are broken and on the street or they are serving me my coffee. They appreciate being treated as people rather than less than that and it makes them treat others differently – at least until some asshole destroys that feeling with some sharp comment or asinine opinion because they think they’re stupid.
Sure it would be wonderful if everyone would wake up and realise that they are the only ones who can make themselves happy. It would be fabulous if everyone stopped trying to shift blame for things and just took their mistakes as lessons and moved on. But we are not living in an age of enlightenment. We are living in an age of total self involvement and disconnection, as evidenced by the production of such crap both on my Facebook and elsewhere in the world. So good riddance Facebook friend; may you find happiness somewhere… else.
Listening to: You Don’t Have a Clue – Royksopp
Reading: Piece of Cake – Cupcake Brown
Drinking: Stash Earl Grey tea
Wrote: 5423 words today