Misery Loves Company

Step right up, folks! Come and get it! Your daily dose of misery cheerfully delivered free of charge whether you want it or not!

Did you wake up on the sunny side? Do you feel good today? Don't you worry about a thing! Those high spirits and good mood can be easily dispensed with by the Misery Mongers. You can't hide from them...they may be lurking in your home, your office, or the line at the grocery store. You cannot spot them by their appearance. They look surprisingly average and come from all walks of life. What they have in common is their need to spread negativity and distress to whomever they meet. They are more common than the cold, more contagious than pink-eye, and about as welcome as warts.

The Misery Mongers are distressed by almost everything, and they want to make certain that you are sufficiently worried, too. They are distressed about politics, economics, religion, sex, and butt head drivers. Like Chicken Little, they are in a great rush to spread bad news. Misery Mongers are not just conveying current events, which we acknowledge can often be distressful. They are also intent on convincing you that life is really terrible, we are going to hell in a handbasket, and things can only get worse.

Being Miserable is an equal opportunity honor that must be shared so that others will have a chance to be Miserable, too. Misery Mongers rarely participate in light-hearted or fun conversations. This is partly because they simply have so much rotten news to share, and partly because they believe that anything that is pleasant cannot possibly be meaningful. Misery Mongers do not want to be considered superficial. It is also due to their fear that if they actually allow themselves to enjoy a single moment it could develop into a frightening habit and they would be forced to admit that there could be another way to view the world.

I am very sure that we get what we believe we will get. If we focus on the negative, we'll find plenty of it. On the other hand, it seems that the half empty glass must also be half full. Greater minds than mine maintain that positive thinking brings positive results. Perhaps if we shifted our focus we would discover that the world is equally full of wonderful things.

The world is not a perfect place, and we should work to improve it. One possible place to start is with ourselves.

Think twice before dumping a load of negativity on someone else. You'll improve their day, and quite possibly your own, too.

When you feel dog tired at night, it may be because you've growled all day long. ~Author Unknown