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Wednesday 1 April 2015

"I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!"

I'm not a fan of The Pinterest. (I have decided to adopt the ironic retrologisms of my former state and put "the" in front of everything to show what an old coot I am.)
I was somehow hoodwinked into registering for a social networking site I have no intetnion of using while not paying attention chasing down a recipe.
ALL I WANT IS THE RECIPE, I should have shouted to myself when The Google sent em to The Pinterest.
Oh, should that have been ALL YOU WANT IS THE RECIPE?
Anyway, I  hate the fact that there is so much useless content catching your eye, and the thing you want is never there, it is still usually two clicks or so away.
(Yes, I am lazy. I abhor unnecessary clicking.)
Anyway I got the recipe, it was probably worth it, but now silly thing that some algorithm which The Pinterest's evil overlords use to try to spy into my heart and soul has indicated to said overlords that matters which are actually of no interest whatever somehow interest me.
It is even less interesting than the Instagram.

And a lot of it is all about The Self-Affirmation.
Seriously?
First of all, grammar.

And secondly, I am beginning to think my entire life has been spent living among, and reading about, and learning from, and yes, BEING, ginormous egotists -- because not thinking enough of oneself is just not the problem all these Important Words To Make Into Decals To Decorate Your Walls indicate that it is, IME.

It seems to me that most of the problems in the world are caused by a paucity of sympathy and empathy, not of self-love.

Now my view may be skewed by my having had a room-mate once who had allowed her ex-boyfriend to mistreat her in a hundred ways and whose therapist had told her she needed "to be more selfish and start putting [her]self first."
All that this new approach led to was her being obnoxious to her colleagues, friends and yes, roommate - selfish, unhelpful, rude and thoughtless to everyone --  EXCEPT the ex-boyfriend of whom she continued to implore, "How high?" while making cow-eyes at him, every time he breezed back into her life to sneer, "Jump."

I don't doubt that there are some few troubled souls who have let the world walk all over them who need to go all Stuart Smalley, but I think they are a minuscule minority.
And even within that segment of the population, I think it is only a small minority for whom self-effacement is a general predicament, as opposed to being something that obtains in singular problematic relationships, (usually with Significant Others, even Serial Significant Others, only occasionally manifesting in other family or work relationships.)

Maybe I'm projecting.

Maybe most people don't need to be "nicer."

Maybe I need to be kinder/gentler/nicer/more giving.

But I don't think it's just me.

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