"A word in earnest is as good as a speech"
~Charles Dickens: Bleak House

Friday, July 29, 2011

Three things that irritate me about people ......

I was going to wait until tomorrow to start my 30 day blog, but I have been reading comments on many news blogs today so this question seems really appropriate!

  1. I hate stupid people. I am not talking about people with learning disabilities, or people who didn't go to college (some of the smartest people I know didn't go to college). I mean people that are just stupid! People who spout opinions based on the headlines of articles they never read. People who, when they realize they are losing an argument, resort to name calling (instead of saying "wow, maybe you have a point"). People who think that the world revolves around them. People who text & drive. I think you get the point.
  2. People who think their way of life is the only way to live. This includes people who think it is okay to dictate my morality based on their beliefs. Or people who try and tell me how to parent (while I have very strong beliefs on parenting, how you raise your children is your business). People who try and tell other people who they should marry. People who tell me how I should practice my faith. Again, I think I have made my point.
  3. People who have not respect for others, or for themselves. This can be a pretty big category .... racism, classism, homophobia. But it also includes corporations that pollute the earth and don't think twice about it, or fire people because the billion dollar profit they made wasn't enough. Or politicians who think that getting reelected is a good enough reason to allow the few to rule the many (just the thing the Constitution was written to avoid). People who don't say thank you when you purchase something in their store. And young girls that think so little of themselves that they think they need to dress like a porn star at the age of 15 (while this is society's fault as a whole, and parents' fault for allowing it, these young girls turn into the young women I teach who come to class with their butt cheeks hanging out, or the young women strutting their breasts all over the Internet thinking that this really validates their worth .... while it irritates me, this one really makes me sad). People who cut you off in traffic and then flip you the bird, or block the intersection so when your light turns green you can't go.

Wow - you would think I would be irritated all the time. But I'm not. Most of the time I just shake my head and move on. Or voice my opinion to the situation and walk away. Maybe that is why I started this blog - to voice my frustration over how self-centered, greedy and disrespectful our society has become.

The good news is that with all the negativity in society - those of us who do not subscribe to it stand out! It makes us easier to find each other and creates a ray of sunlight to brighten people's day. And maybe, just maybe, like that Liberty Mutual Insurance Commercial we will rub off on people and the world will be less irritating!

1 comment:

  1. Wow...I just posted a comment on another blog that fits well with this...about society's shift to "me".

    The adage "it takes a village to raise a child" didn't come from nowhere, and I think if we still had a sense of being a "village" (as opposed to most of us feeling like we are tiny and alone in the world) that we wouldn't have a lot of the problems and negativity we're plagued with these days.

    I could easily get off on a tangent here, but I won't. In my personal effort to brighten someone's day, I always offer to help a mother who looks frazzled. Even if it involves keeping an eye on one of her kids for a minute so she can deal with her other child. It's not much, but it can make a world of difference in the day of a mom who is at wits end. It sure has for me. :-)

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