Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Hello. Care if I bring you down?

Foul-weather friends. Can't stand 'em.

We're all familiar with the more-popular "fair weather friend," the people you never ever hear from until something goes well for you. Just ask people who have a lake cottage if they hear from their buddies more often in June or December. You just got a big-screen plasma TV? Great. Guess who's going to get drop-in visits from his long-lost buddies Sunday afternoon while the game is on? You won the lottery? Super. Your 4th cousin thrice-removed has been trying to get in touch with you.

But I guess I'd rather have a fair-weather friend than a foul-weather friend. At least with fair-weather friends it means something good happened to you.

Not so with the dreaded "fouler." These are people who consider you a friend (no comment on how you may actually feel about them) who only contact you when they want to stir up some drama. You never get a "how you doing" or a "for the heck of it" call. Nah. What's the use in that? Can't use it.

But if someone hurts their feelings or does something they don't agree with or looks at them the wrong way, then let's go to the phone lines.

Don't get me wrong. If my pals are going through a genuinely rough time I'm the first to lend an ear. I want to be there and I want to help. If, however, your diet consists of gossip, rumor, complaining, and drama then please lose my number. Life is wayyyy too short to let the little things get you down.

A couple of weeks ago in church the preacher was talking about a bad day he had. In the morning he was shortchanged $7.00 in a transaction and was unable to get it back. It kind of set things into motion and ruined his day from that point on. We've all been there; get the day started on the wrong foot and sometimes it's hard to get back into rhythm. By the end of the day this guy had thought about this and stewed and pondered over it and then it hit him: He sold his joy for seven bucks.

What kind of state are we in when losing seven dollars or stepping in a puddle or something equally minute can rob us of happiness for an entire day? And if that's not bad enough, why do we insist on bringing others into our depressing state of mind over nothing?

I'm talking to myself here, not just pointing the finger at others. Misery does indeed love company. But that doesn't mean company loves misery.

There's too much in life to laugh at and not enough time to laugh at it all. Instead of getting involved in the drama, why not take time to check out the comedy?

2 comments:

Stacy said...

Well said, friend. Thanks for the encouragement! :)

Miss Behaving said...

Well put, I have had those days too and recently try to consciously re-start my day.
Given the idea that we create our own reality if we think its all going to be crappy then it is and often 'good' or 'bad' are just random judgements we throw at a situation so I guess we can just choose not to make them.
Let's all have great day, however it comes.
:)