Finding My Voice

I’m a chronic complainer, but like most people, I typically do most of my complaining to my husband, my daughter, the dog, and anyone else who happens to be nearby. It takes a major injustice (like finding shredded rubber gloves in my tacos) for me to really speak out about something. Why do I no longer try to right all of the injustices in this crazy world? It could be that I hate conflict; it could be that I’m afraid of being wrong; it could be that I'm too much of a pessimist; it could be that I’m just too lazy. Most likely, it’s all of the above. However, something that my wise and sage-like husband said has really changed my tune. I believe it was: “You can’t just keep bitching about these things if you’re not going to do anything about them.”

So, I’m done sitting back and letting all of the little things go. I’m going to tell people in our park that their dogs have to be on leashes so that they don’t maul my child. I’m going to write to the state and tell them to please time the damn streetlights on my way to work so that I don’t spend needless hours in the car stopping at five lights in succession every single day! I’m going to continue to write to the art museum to tell them that holding a toddler program during nap time is probably not the most efficient use of my donor dollars. I’m going to tell the City of Atlanta that maybe closing all of the public pools due to the drought is not the brightest idea considering the thousands of wayward teenagers who won’t have anything better to do this summer than break into my house. I’ve had enough!

Sure, nothing will probably become of my bitching, but if we all just complain to our spouses, not only will nothing get done but we will cause a new social ill due to the rising rate of divorce.

Now, back to the important issues of Hailey and the croup. She’s fine. She’s back at school and just has a little cough. Judging by the number of kids coughing when I dropped her off this morning, I expect her to be hacking until Spring. Poor thing!