*Recently I posted a link on my Facebook page to an article that is so profound about the 37 things to do before we get old, that I want to write a little bit about each of the things.
30 years ago, I gave up a bad relationship.
I’ll admit up front that I don’t have a lot of personal experience with this subject but these things are numbered and I feel inclined to stay in order.
It’s good to tolerate people, yes. But it’s hard to understand how we knowingly do things, like staying in a bad relationship, that hurts us.
For instance, I wouldn’t go stick my hand in a running garbage disposal because? I know it hurts.
So, I’ve never been a fan of bad relationships. But maybe that’s just me. Rose colored glasses don’t look good on me and seeing things, both good and bad, for what they are is important to keep us safe and happy.
30 years ago, I gave up smoking because it was bad for me and it hurt me.
And, it made me stink. No amount of Aramis and gold chains can cover up the stench of Marlboro 100’s. But I dearly loved smoking a cig with coffee, driving an ambulance, after certain activities, Waterholing and reading nursing books the size of War and Peace. But no matter how much I loved those delicious little white bundles of rolled up joy, in the back of my mind I knew they would hurt me. So, I stopped it…cold turkey.
I guess the one thing about people relationships that I can say is that people don’t need to choose relationships as a project. People are who they are, end of story. And sometimes that maybe a perfectly good person, but not a good fit for us.
And a note to the ladies; please don’t choose a man as a ‘fixer upper’; A guy that you want to mold into something that you can brag about that you made right and usable.
And then get upset and rain all over him on Facebook because your project failed.
We men simply are who we are and no amount of paint, staining and Lowes help is going to turn us frogs into princes. Find a fellar to be happy with as they are and you’ll save both you and your frog-project a lot of heart ache. Bad boys can grow up to be bad men.
Same goes for friends. I do know that we need to keep the good ones around us and cut the bad ones lose. We all know who they are. Sure, it hurts a bit cutting those ties. We don’t need to put them in their grave, but letting them gradually slide to the background and the good ones skate up to the foreground goes a long way in keeping ourselves safe and happy.
It hurt a bit not being able to find my box of Marlboro 100’s in a box for awhile when I was stressed.
But after a week or so, I felt and I breathed and I smelled so much better, that I knew that I had made the right decision to shut down that bad, dependent relationship and move on to a better life.
That’s the best I can tell about it.
~Mark
**Next is not using sunscreen.
The Hungry Keyboard 