This one took place after this morning’s Mass. It is not funny:
FWP: How are you today?
Other Parishioner: Do you get this Hallowe’en stuff?FWP: Well, it’s based on a custom from medieval Europe—
OP: No, I mean what’s with all the decorations and lights?FWP: People like special occasions. It’s an excuse to dress up in costumes and have a party.
OP: I think it’s just more commercialism.FWP: Well, if businessmen see a chance to make a buck—a
OP: I just don’t get it. People treat it like Christmas!FWP: It had a serious purpose back when—
OP: I don’t want an education!FWP: You just want to complain?
OP: Yeah.
FWP: Have a nice day.
I have to tell you, Gentle Reader, that shook me a little. Have you ever experienced anything like that?
Yeah. He just wanted something to bitch about. We're lucky. He could have been shooting up a Republican campaign headquarters.
ReplyDeleteI remember one of the Dilbert books by Scott Adams. He explained that all people like to complain, even the richest people on Earth who, he presumed, probably complained about maids bumping into furniture with vacuum cleaners or something.
ReplyDelete"You can't get good help anymore. With the way the maid is bumping into the furniture, there will be nothing but sawdust left soon!"
"I know how Atlantis fell, it had too many maids!"
Other Parishioner's biggest mistake was trying to complain to a curmudgeon. And it was a very lame and annoying complaint, at that! I can't imagine looking your way and thinking 'oh that's exactly the man who wants to hear about all of my petty holiday complaints!'
(chuckle) You nailed it, Dys.
ReplyDeleteIt is amusing he picked our favorite curmudgeon to complain to. Wrong direction if he's looking for sympathy. Now my lovely wife would have half-listened and nodded her head. Poor silly girl actually tries to be nice.
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm a very sympathetic sort, John. I'll listen endlessly to someone who has a serious problem and sincerely wants assistance with it -- but not to someone who just wants to rant and rave. Life is far too short to expend any of it on such idiocy.
ReplyDeleteI attended a local community college in Oregon back in 1999, getting my RN degree. As I hadn't been to a college since back in 1978, when I went through the San Diego police academy (at a community college next door to Miramar Naval Air Station) , I was flabbergasted by the students in most of the classes I took along with the nursing course there in Oregon.
ReplyDeleteIn spite of some fairly good instructors/professors, in almost every class, more than one student complained, "I don't want an education. I just want to know what is going to be on the tests. You're wasting my time, teaching me all the other stuff."
There might have been three or four of us - mostly older adults (I was 50) - who were interested in and enjoyed what was being taught.
Younger students, just out of high school, or in their early twenties, had no desire to learn anything except what they could regurgitate when tested. I don't know if this was only common on the community college level, but from what I have seen and heard elsewhere, it seems to have infected four year colleges and universities as well.
Oh, I dunno. I do appreciate them letting me know if their purpose is just to bitch. It saves me the time spent arguing/educating.
ReplyDeleteMy husband does that with me sometimes. I'll be grousing, and he'll ask:
"Do you want me to seriously listen, or are you just blowing off steam?"
I don't object - it clarifies the situation.