So What! Don't Worry, Be Happy.

Have you noticed lately that more folks are unhappy and seem to be trying to make everyone they come into contact with unhappy too?

Maybe it's just because of all the negative news everywhere about the upcoming election. Maybe it's because summer is over, the days are getting shorter and folks are getting less sunshine in their lives. Or, maybe, like the proverbial pig they just enjoy wrestling in the mud and want someone else in there with them.

Several events have happened to me lately that provided great opportunities to become upset and blow off my steam at someone else, who in these cases most likely deserved it, but instead I took that other path and covered them with kindness and understanding. WOW! What a great reward I received for that tiny act of kindness.

In the first case I received a tax bill, for the second year in a row, on property I no longer owned. Now almost everyone knows how troublesome it is to deal with county government robot officials. Nobody wants to take any responsibility for anything! Ever! Well, rather than rant and rave I expressed my understanding and told the offender that I appreciated his situation and would gladly wait until he could figure out how to permenantly resolve my situation. Within hours it was accomplished and I received a personal email thanking me for my patience and understanding.

Next was dinner with my wife where the waiter seemed unable to grasp the simple concept of writing our order correctly and then completely forgot to place my order so my wife's food was delivered before he realized he'd never ordered my food! Great! Again I completely surprised him and my wife as well as myself by assuring him I was ok and understood how stressful it must be to have a dining room full of folks all wanting his undivided attention all the time. It didn't get my food any quicker, but the more relaxed atmosphere was worth it. Now I can assure you all of this was far out of normal character for me, but it provided a great new learning experience for me in human relations.

Just once, maybe this weekend, try giving someone who doesn't deserve it some little extra slack, without expecting anything in return, and see what happens. Write me and share your experience. I believe you will, as I was, be very pleasantly surprised.