Never Post Anything When Angry

Posted 2009 February 14 Saturday 15:28 Jabberings (2)

Well, really, truly, foaming-at-the-mouth angry.  Being a little tweaked can lead to some interesting posts, but don’t do it when full of unfocused rage.  ’Cause blogging when a red haze clouds the vision leads to bad choices of words, and that’s just not a good thing.

So, I’ve stayed away, choosing that advice over succumbing to the bitter, nasty jumble of words and phrases just poised at the edge of my fingers, waiting to escape onto this screen.

When I was a wee-boy growing up in Duluth, I had problems with my temper.  I would say nasty things, behave atrociously, and was just a real pain at times.  One day someone said “Nate, you’re talking from your stomach too much.  Don’t speak from your stomach, just use it to start from.  It’s all just noise and smelly gas in your stomach.  Speak from your heart and your head.  That’s where you take that noise and gas and turn it into something useful.”

Well, I’m done typing the words straight from my stomach.  My head and heart are itching to get back to this thing what I call a blog.

Back to topic: I’m fairly sure I’m not the only one who’s avoiding the keyboard recently.  Last year, around June-ish methinks, I think I saw a vague little post asking where everybody went, and there wasn’t any real response.  I wish I could remember which blog, I’d provide a link, but I can’t.

Where does this rage come from?  I’m only 25% rhetorical in posing that, as I don’t think I know the entire answer.  But what I do think is this: the last three years have been fugly-stupid.  We’ve watched as the rest of the world got some serious justification in hating America.  We’ve watched as the financial world fell to it’s knees, got hoisted back up on shakey legs, then fell back to it’s knees.  We’ve watched friends and family lose their jobs, homes, everything but their bills and debt.

And for some reason, no one is standing up and saying anything in any forum or setting where it matters.

But there is a major hypocrisy: people are getting angry that no one is saying anything, but no one will say something themselves.  They all want someone else to risk their neck to say something about how wrong things have been the past couple years.

(Don’t think I’m excluding myself from the first half of the previous statement — I’m not saying anything in a forum where it matters, by choice.  I do exclude myself from the second statement — I’m focusing on the necessary daily tasks in front of me, not on everybodys’ long-term future.)

Example: someone I know has been making some mistakes at work.  As a supervisor, I receive reports of these mistakes and then I bring them to this person’s attention, providing guidance towards improvement when I see patterns.  Over the past couple months these mistakes have gotten really weird, and one statement was made that just blew me away: Why aren’t you checking all my work?  That’s what you are here for!  

(For those out at work who read this, you will probably not be able to guess who this person is.  I haven’t talked about this incident — I do save some things from work rants and raves for use as illustrative points within this blog.)

Yes, I occasionally check your work.  Yes, I am responsible for making sure you have the materials and environment you need to do your work.  But no, I am not your personal proofreader or mental trainer.  You are responsible for doing what you do to the best of your ability, and you are responsible for saying something if you do not have everything you need available to you.

Now take that concept and widen its scale: why should someone else be responsible for voicing your concerns?  Why should someone else be responsible for making sure you have, in hand, everything you need?

Someone else should be responsible for making available things you are prevented from making, growing, or manufacturing yourself.

For example: a farmer that provides crops cannot be reasonably held responsible for manufacturing his own computer parts when his PC breaks down, nor should he be held responsible for providing finished lumber or tar shingles for roofing or automobile parts.

But that farmer should be held responsible for providing crops he non-verbally agreed to provide when he became a farmer.

People, please.  Stop worrying about what everyone else is doing, and start doing what you can.  Start worrying about what you are doing.

And quit yer bitching-for-bitching’s sake.  Three years of the same bitching over and over and over again is getting really old, especially when you haven’t done anything but bitch.

I’m sure you have enough worries in your own life right now, goodness knows I do.

Have fun, readers.  I’m trying.

Skåll!!!