"There is nothing more galling to angry people
than the coolness of those on whom
they wish to vent their spleen."
-- Alexandre Dumas
People complain, don't ya know, and many of them complain most all the time. Having been in that group for such a long time, I do know it well, and Mr Dumas' quote above is so perfect and so, so true.
In recent years, I find a bit of fun with it. Airports and airplanes are good places to find lots of complainers. It's the weather or the missed flight, the bag problem, charging for the bags, just peanuts and crackers, de-icing the plane, delays, the lousy food at the airport, the price of the food at the airport, and oh my goodness, the list goes on. What's really fun is while someone is complaining about one of those scenarios, just be so calm and cool and collected and how those kind of things just roll off you, because they are trivial in comparison to real problems, and so on. Even better than this is to state positive things about your airport and plane experiences and how they just keep getting better. They stop complaining pretty quickly.
What's really weird is to start conversations with people by telling them how grateful you are that things are going so well, that good things always seem to happen, how interesting the changes have made the trip, how much better things seem to get and so on. Pretty soon, you hear the sound of no one listening. Not so many like a praiser, but complainers they like better.
It's a funny world in this. . .
Uppers and Downers. Hmmm. I Choose Upper.
Spread Some Joy Today--find something good to say about everyone you come in contact with today. You want to really be bold? Tell them.
No comments:
Post a Comment