ANST - End the whining - do something and make a difference

[Michael Tucker]

Greetings, all, from Michael Silverhands:

One thing we never seem to tire of in our Society, and especially on these
message boards, is whining about situations we don't like while not offering to
do much (if anything) about them ourselves. All too often we wistfully opine
"Somebody ought to do something about this!", without realizing that we *are*
"somebody". Not all of us are guilty of that; in fact, quite a few voices here
belong to folks who regularly make a difference by their deeds in addition to
their words.

I ran across the following Web site which sums up this fascination we have with
gloomy, introspective whining quite nicely.

<http://www.arachnoid.com/careware/>

For those of you without Web access, it says (in part):

---------- begin quoted section ----------

...stop whining about how hard your life is, at least for a while. ...We have so
much, and yet we manage to:
- Overlook great examples of beauty around us,
- Miss our most important opportunities,
- Manage to make ourselves miserable by expecting something even better to come along.

Every time we whine about how tough we have it, apart from the fact that we look
ridiculous, we make it harder for people around us to appreciate how much we
have. We encourage people to overlook the things we do have, the gifts of man
and nature. We provide a context to dismiss everything as not good enough, to be
miserable in the midst of plenty.

Don't get the wrong impression -- many things are unjust, things that should be
struggled against until they are made right. My complaint is with people who
can't find even one thing to take joy in, to appreciate. These people not only
make themselves miserable, but they infect others with the attitude that the
world should right itself, by itself, before they will take simple pleasure in anything.

...stop whining for an hour, a day, a week... Say encouraging words to young
people, make them feel welcome on the planet Earth (many do not). Show by
example that we don't need all we have in order to be happy and productive.

-- Paul Lutus, Port Hadlock, Washington

---------- end quoted section ----------

Yours in the spirit of proactive and compassionate change for the better,
and appreciating what we have while working to improve our state,
Michael
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