as small as a world and as large as alone

9:13pm August 18, 2013

It bugs me when people are unnecessarily mean. Like, you didn’t have to make that comment. You could have just kept your mouth shut and left that person not feeling bad about themselves. What do you gain from making someone else feel like shit? Nothing of substance. Maybe a fleeting moment of power but that’s gone as soon as it comes so why? There’s enough unhappiness in the world without you adding to it.

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I can understand that people have bad days and take it out on others. Or even bad years, although after a point there’s even more responsibility to try to avoid doing that.

But I’ve also met people who thrive on being mean. People who love drama and will create it if they can’t find any. People who seem to lack all conscience and the closest they get to joy is attempting to ruin people’s lives. The first people need a reality check, the second people need to have their community aware enough of them to deflect the harm.

But one of the best things I ever heard about everyday meanness. A TV show where a woman starts out in a bad mood and realizes people seem to respect her more when she’s mean. So she takes out all he frustrations on a man at work. I think his name was Ethan.

At the end of the day her boss says Ethan quit, saying he couldn’t take the cutthroat corporate culture. She tries to apologize saying she had a bit of a bad day. And her boss says, “No. YOU didn’t have a bad day. ETHAN had a bad day.”

That was one of the best wake up calls I ever had about taking frustration and anger out on other people.

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