I’m working on being a calmer person. This is my constant goal, I am always working on it to varying degrees of success depending on the month. Right now, I’m working on not judging people, on understanding that more often than not, there is quite a bit more to the situation than I can see.
Of course, being an NPR junkie, they rewarded me (push the button/get the peanut) in my quest by playing a commentary by Andrei Codrescu, also published here.
This was it, this is exactly what I am trying to achieve. Mostly it works fine, I rarely get angry at parents with crying kids on airplanes, but I think that the people who do get angry at the parent are gigantic dicks. So it works like halfway, I don’t judge the parents, but I do judge the crabby people (I just can’t stop believing they are dicks). I don’t judge people for their weight, lord knows I understand just how hard it is to lose weight, but I think the people who are all smug about their ‘healthy’ lifestyles are…dicks. Again, I need to work on this. As an atheist, I try to be understanding of all religions and people’s levels of faith, but I think hardnosed atheists who like to think they’re all smart for their lack of belief are a great big bunch of dicks (including Richard Dawkins, I’m sorry, I know, but still, he’s such a dick about it).
So, my goal now is not to be understanding of the underdog, I think i’m doing okay there. I need to be less judgemental of the major dicks. That’s my struggle, do not judge the person who says “god, if they would just discipline their kid it wouldn’t be screaming” or “why don’t you try a little self control on the cheetohs” or “having people believe there is a pink unicorn in my garage doesn’t make the pink unicorn real” (SHUT UP). I will be more calm about these people, I will understand that every point of view is valuable, even if I do not agree.
However, that chick at Hot Plate that was begging her mom for a car (“but i’m almost 19″…”it will be an incentive to keep my grades up”…”it would make it really convenient for me to go to Walgreens when I need something”) is just not getting a pass from me, sorry. If you’re ‘almost 19’ then have some fucking responsibility and get a job. Actually, that’s kind of what her mom was telling her anyway.