Currently I am hiding in a dark room, in a house which is thankfully air-conditioned. I am blissfully thankful for this situation as we are living in one of those waves of stupidly hot weather. Read: 35ºC, which is probably up near the 100's for any fahrenheit users.
Either way, the weather is a point of complaint. Easily.
But wait, just a few weeks back we had rain, glorious, wonderful rain, and more rain. This was also a point of complaint. (Well, for those individuals who aren't ducks like myself).
The point of the matter is this, there is *always* something to complain about. I'm just a guilty as any, mind you, which is why I figured now would be a good time to write on this topic. Especially seeing as many of my points of complaint are going to be eight hours behind me, literally, when in just a few weeks I embark on my move to England.
This world. This time. This. Is. It.
That's all. Those three simple words are so irritatingly perfect but I complained to my mom how boring that would be as a title in a blog post a few weeks back, and here I am now, using it.
Plus, as a duck, living in the semi-desert climate of the Okanagan Valley, I am literally singing in the rain, when the skies drop upon the earth. Whereas I am surrounded by individuals who are living here generally by choice, or having grown up here, they know nothing different and thereby they all get grumpy when it rains and are happy when it is sunny. (Mostly).
I have two queries to this:
1. Why is rain always the scapegoat for mutual complaining in daily human interactions?
2. Why is complaining such a part of human interaction it is an ingrained and as much an opener to further conversation as "how are you?" happens to be?
What I come back to on this juncture comes down to an observation that is it simply easier to complain, to whine, to wallow in mutual disatisfaction than it is to run around shrieking with joy, which is primarily the modus operandi of San Diego Comic-Con as I outlined in my last post.
Where it comes from, I haven't the slightest clue. But then again, I haven't a clue where a question like "how are you?" comes from in terms of things to say to acknowledge an14 other other other person. When really, it isn't doing any acknowledgement of that person because for all we know, they might be feeling absolutely horrible, or maybe they do want to go and dance a jig in the middle of the street, but they won't, because of socially expected norms. Like complaining.
I recently prompted 14 other people on facebook to a seven day positivity challenge in which they had to post three things every day that were positive, and then they had to recruit two more people each day, to take on the challenge. It's been fantastic because my dashboard has been full of these people, and the people they recruited, all writing about positive things, even on days when, for some of them, some really miserable things just happened to occur.
Which brings me to my concluding point, that I want to encourage all of you to try out that challenge, or at the least, try to say something positive to someone when you greet them tomorrow. Instead of mutually complaining about how hot it is, or how cold it is, or how bad the traffic was, or how annoying tourists are, or whatever might the mutual point of complaint in your current place of residence, comment on how great the weather has been, or how happy the person looks.
Yes, you are most likely going to get weird looks or reluctant agreement (especially if you are trying this at your place of work and believe me, most people are not happy at grocery stores because of the money being spent and so mutual positivity is meant with more confusion than otherwise).
Either way, this life. This. Is. It. Yes, if you are into a whole reincarnation thing, or heaven thing, or whatever your life-after-this-one's belief happens to be, this particular moment, in this particular time and this particular place is never going to happen again.
So, instead of complaining about the heat, think of how you will feel in the winter, and be happy with now.
Striving toward "sunny duck" status.
Moony.
Either way, the weather is a point of complaint. Easily.
 |
| Marigolds grow bright with regular hose water, feed them that way. Not with your complaining fountain. |
But wait, just a few weeks back we had rain, glorious, wonderful rain, and more rain. This was also a point of complaint. (Well, for those individuals who aren't ducks like myself).
The point of the matter is this, there is *always* something to complain about. I'm just a guilty as any, mind you, which is why I figured now would be a good time to write on this topic. Especially seeing as many of my points of complaint are going to be eight hours behind me, literally, when in just a few weeks I embark on my move to England.
This world. This time. This. Is. It.
That's all. Those three simple words are so irritatingly perfect but I complained to my mom how boring that would be as a title in a blog post a few weeks back, and here I am now, using it.
Plus, as a duck, living in the semi-desert climate of the Okanagan Valley, I am literally singing in the rain, when the skies drop upon the earth. Whereas I am surrounded by individuals who are living here generally by choice, or having grown up here, they know nothing different and thereby they all get grumpy when it rains and are happy when it is sunny. (Mostly).
I have two queries to this:
1. Why is rain always the scapegoat for mutual complaining in daily human interactions?
2. Why is complaining such a part of human interaction it is an ingrained and as much an opener to further conversation as "how are you?" happens to be?
What I come back to on this juncture comes down to an observation that is it simply easier to complain, to whine, to wallow in mutual disatisfaction than it is to run around shrieking with joy, which is primarily the modus operandi of San Diego Comic-Con as I outlined in my last post.
Where it comes from, I haven't the slightest clue. But then again, I haven't a clue where a question like "how are you?" comes from in terms of things to say to acknowledge an14 other other other person. When really, it isn't doing any acknowledgement of that person because for all we know, they might be feeling absolutely horrible, or maybe they do want to go and dance a jig in the middle of the street, but they won't, because of socially expected norms. Like complaining.
I recently prompted 14 other people on facebook to a seven day positivity challenge in which they had to post three things every day that were positive, and then they had to recruit two more people each day, to take on the challenge. It's been fantastic because my dashboard has been full of these people, and the people they recruited, all writing about positive things, even on days when, for some of them, some really miserable things just happened to occur.
Which brings me to my concluding point, that I want to encourage all of you to try out that challenge, or at the least, try to say something positive to someone when you greet them tomorrow. Instead of mutually complaining about how hot it is, or how cold it is, or how bad the traffic was, or how annoying tourists are, or whatever might the mutual point of complaint in your current place of residence, comment on how great the weather has been, or how happy the person looks.
Yes, you are most likely going to get weird looks or reluctant agreement (especially if you are trying this at your place of work and believe me, most people are not happy at grocery stores because of the money being spent and so mutual positivity is meant with more confusion than otherwise).
Either way, this life. This. Is. It. Yes, if you are into a whole reincarnation thing, or heaven thing, or whatever your life-after-this-one's belief happens to be, this particular moment, in this particular time and this particular place is never going to happen again.
So, instead of complaining about the heat, think of how you will feel in the winter, and be happy with now.
Striving toward "sunny duck" status.
Moony.
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