Matthias Grünewald – Complaining Pharisee – WGA10802 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Do you know what annoys me? People complaining.
That, and the definition of irony in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Well, actually, people complaining in and of itself doesn’t annoy me, but in the vast majority of cases it does, and they tend to fall into these categories:
Complaining about things you can’t change
People complain all the time about the weather, taxes and late trains. Complaining about these sorts of things adds nothing to anyone except to further annoy you and spread the annoyance to others. So it seems pretty pointless to me.
Complaining about things you can change but haven’t
This is worse: people complain about the fact they overslept, or that they’ve spent all their money, or that they can’t stop looking at naughty pictures. If you put as much effort into correcting the things you’re complaining about as you do complaining, you’d be a happy person. So get happy.
Complaining about things you’ve tried to change and failed to
Less common. Most people who try to correct a situation but fail just get unhappy, so complaining can actually be a useful vent. I don’t mind this that much.
Complaining to God about stuff He’s done
This can actually be useful too! Complaining to God by saying ‘You’re an idiot!’ doesn’t help anything, but saying ‘I don’t understand what you’re doing!’ can actually remind you of your insignificance…
