COMPLAINING COMPLAINER EXPLAINED

How does a complaining complainer solve problems?

First they complain.

Then they complain some more.

To wrap things up they add a little more complaining.

There you go, problem solved. Or is it?

Who are these people who only see what’s wrong in the world?

Complainers.

Who do they complain to?

Anyone who will listen.

How effective are their complaints?

Now we’ll get to the root of things.

There’s two kind of people:

Those who complain and call it ‘my personality.’

Those who complain as a building block to action on a problem.

Take the ‘mountain climbers’ on Mt. Everest for example.

They walk past climbing trash and the dead.

At 8,848.86 meters or 29,0129 feet above sea level Everest is by far the tallest mountain in the world. That means Everest is five and a half miles above sea level. So being able to claim the summit is a newsworthy achievement.

The high death rate also seems to attract the type of person who might aim to “cheat death”.

George Mallory was one of the first people to attempt the climb and answered the question fairly succinctly. When asked “Why did you want to climb Everest?” he replied simply: “Because it’s there.” 

George Mallory’s body was found on the mountain 75 years later.

The goal is getting to the top one way or the other, and neither is suited for a complaining complainer.

Besides, if you want to climb a mountain look closer to home.

Dr: “What’s Your Major Complaint?”

The doctor’s office is where the complaining complainer shines brightest.

Major complaint? Where to start.

And the doctor has to listen.

If you’re not a doctor trained to listen to complainers with empathy and understanding, do you have to listen at all?

First listen to yourself bitch and complain before answering.

Then listen in on a group of older folks.

They never shut up about their heart, their eyes, their hip.

Or maybe it’s just me?

I had an apartment life neighbor who moved in overhead.

He got up at four in the morning and stomped around in his work boots.

He worked at the airport so they were big stomper boots.

One day I knocked on his door.

“Hi, I’m your neighbor downstairs and I’ve got a problem.”

“Yeah, I’ve got a problem too.”

“Great to hear. You go first. What’s your problem?”

“You knocking on my door.”

So we got off to a good start.

One Complaint Matters Most

You know this guy:

He used to wear a Starter jacket not of his favorite team but because it was a Starter jacket.

He sported the latest basketball shoes not because he had game but because he wanted to look like he had game.

Then he grew up and found the answer to all of his longing for a better identity.

He ditched all of his old crap and bought Trump gear, talked Trump talk, and laughed in the face of anyone who said, “Get a life.”

He found his lord and savior in Trump.

“Why jump in that shit pool, Frank?”

“One man’s shit pool is another man’s champagne bath.”

“Champagne bath? What the hell’s a champagne bath.”

“It’s what we’ll all be bathing in once Trump is president again.”

“Doesn’t that sound unlikely?”

“Nope, not at all. He said it and so it shall be.”

“He says a lot of things. He has to to protect the title of greatest shit talker of all time.”

“Why do you say it like it’s a bad thing?”

“Because the quality of his shit talk draws in idiots who ought to know better.”

“Yeah, like who?”

My chief complaint as a complaining complainer:

Know you topic before you go off on it. Know it from both sides, from up and down, and you’ll see it better and yourself too.

Joni Mitchell explains how uncloud your vision:

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all

Neither do you or I, so let’s work on it.