Dear Jessica Brennan,
Why do people complain? We all do it, but some people are professionals. They are dark and heavy to listen to, and best to be avoided. Nothing is ever right.
Argh, get away from me! These people make me want to flee.
The complainers are also often know-it-alls and that’s doubly annoying. If you know so much why do you have to complain about everything? Fix it.
When I’ve had enough of the victim-talkers, I like to ask a seemingly innocent question that always fully annoys them. I shouldn’t do this because it just prolongs the agony of listening to their sad tale, but sometimes I can’t help myself.
Full disclosure: I do it on purpose and I do it with the full intention of being irritating.
Here is the loaded question. “What are you doing to change this thing that’s bothering you so much?”
No one wants to be asked this when they are complaining but truly if someone issued an honest disclaimer to me in advance, I would have an easier time listening to the moaning.
Something like, “I know that I could move, leave, stay, fight, vote, let go, do it, leave it alone, accept it, improve it, sell it, buy it, hold on, give in…(pick one) but really all I want to do is complain.”
This kind of preface would at least give me the chance to say that I‘m not interested in hearing the noise pollution and soul sucking words they are about to release like the quills of a porcupine into my chosen, warm and content reality.
So why do people complain?
Well, as Savannah, Georgia native Flannery O’Connor said in her first novel, Wise Blood.
“It’s easier to bleed than to sweat”.
How true it is.
Love,
Mum xo