I started to write a different blog entry, but suddenly this one popped in to my mind.
I can't help but wonder why it is that we complain.
And I don't mean the sort of complaining like "There's a fly in my soup", but the just straight up nothing you can really do about it complain.
I was sitting here poised to write an entry about how working retail sucks because you have to work weekends and it's difficult to take off the amount of work I need to do the things I want to and I don't get to see my family or travel to KC on the 4th of July because I have to work 'til 6:30 and I just didn't sleep well last night because of weird dreams and I ate horribly yesterday so my body feels off and ugh!
But honestly none of those things are really bothering me that much, none of those items are going to ruin my life or even really mess up today...so why complain?
Is it sympathy? Do I want you to say "Aww poor Lindsey, come here and have some ice cream and I'll make it all better"? No probably not, because I hate it when people do that (as Gabriel found out by my reaction yesterday). So the question remains...
I'm beginning to think we complain to make a connection. I noticed this last night at work. One of my co-workers said to me "Ugh I hate the pillow wall" and my immediate response was "Oh I know! Straighten it up all you like but it will always be messy!" The pillow wall is inconsequential, but now I have a connection with that co-worker- we hate the pillow wall.
So what would it look like to form connections with people on the basis of something other than complaining?
I think that falls nicely under my "right speech" goal. I'll get back to you...
In other news, my nose is making a weird clicking noise when I breathe, much like the noise my cell phone makes right before it rings. It's making me jumpy, but giving me a whole new reason to laugh and not take myself so seriously. :-)
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1 comments:
One thing I noticed in my brief time on the OOH staff back in high school (though you would have more perspective onthis than me) was that lots of people would use extremely dark negative language even to describe positive feelings of love and happiness.
It almost seems like people are too afraid to put themselves out on a limb by talking about something they like for fear that others will think it's stupid. Of course I'm not sure why we feel that way over positivity and not as much over negativity.
I wonder just how consequential the "polarity" of these connections is? Here's a game: sit and wonder how different (if at all) your relationship with this co-worker may have unfolded if you had connected last night over how much you liked the pillow wall.
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