letting off a little steam

Personal level: maybe if I don't bottle this kind of stuff up, I will be a more serene person.

The other day, when I was visiting my boys and clearing the back yard in the house I bought, then gave away in the divorce settlement (along with everything else I woned, as well as all future money, a deal my wife's own attorney referred to as "giving away the farm") I mentioned I'd like to do a book next year of poetry for weddings, generic stuff, as "101 Great Love Poems" as sold well for that purpose. I told her I'd like to do that, then sign over the royalties to my duaghter and her fiance as a wedding present. She snapped back:

"You know, she doesn't like your poetry."

That was uncalled for. Yes, I understand she doesn't read much poetry, and may not even like mine if she does, but this wasn't about that. This was about my taking the time and doing something I can do as a gift to two people whom I love. I can't imagine her saying to a child "You know, your father doesn't like finger paintings, so don't expect him to appreciate the Father's Day gift." (like I even get a call for Father's Day)

It was a graceless and malicious point to make. And I am starting to get steamed with the overall maliciousness of people. Lava-vent-steam steamed. My brief exposure to "Southern Manners" just taught me so much about how hateful and gaceless people can be. We are all more than the mask we wear at the moment, even if we are not called on it.

I am tired of people who talk behind other people's backs, calling them names and deriding them, then calling on them for favours when the need suits them. That's two faced and malicious.

I'm tired of people who are so stupid as to talk you down when you are standing twenty feet away (I have excellent hearing) or expect everyone else in the world to be so corrupt they won't see the moral flaw in this. We are not all savages, or two faced.

I am weary unto death of people who don't listen. Who will not hear both sides of a story as, obviously, the first side you hear is obviously always the whole story (read Chekov's "The Rumor" for an aspect on that).

I am tired of people who do not see themselves as part of the whole, but as distinct units at the top of the chain, whose own comfort and survival is more important than anyone else's.

I am just tired of the gracelessness of these times. End of rant.