JenellYB Posted August 16, 2011 Posted August 16, 2011 I'm coining a new word: compboasting. Definition: (1) When someone tries to disguise their boasting as complaining. Ex: Someone is loudly and angrily bellyaching about the huge bite income taxes take out of of their hard-earned income because they are in the highest tax bracket---especially when you have good reason to believe they are not and even nowhere near it. (2) a good reason to find a plausable sounding explanation for excusing yourself from a conversation before you end up popping your cork and regretting it later. Jenell
JosephM Posted August 16, 2011 Posted August 16, 2011 i wish i had something to compboast about. Not that i would do it of course. Would i be the first to use your new word? Darn, i hate it when i have to be the first one. PS How did i do for both usage and practice?
JenellYB Posted August 17, 2011 Author Posted August 17, 2011 Yeah, I don't have much to compboast about either.....I'm one of the poor country mice in my family. I'm one of those sitting there listening to the compboaster and thinking to myself, holy crap, you are complaining and bellyaching and carrying on about your income tax bill being 4-5 times the amount of my annual income, and you expect me to feel SORRY for you??!!! Actually, in the particular case that's about to get on my last nerve lately, it isn't the even compboaster herself that earns that income and has that tax bill, its her husband, I don't think she's worked more than a few years of her life and that was way back when..... Chill, Jenell, Chill. Just smile, nod, be nice. Until you can gracefully exit the conversation, anyway.
JosephM Posted August 17, 2011 Posted August 17, 2011 Well money is nice i must admit, and most all want lots of it, but there is in my view no positive correlation between large amounts of money and happiness. I think there is a proverb that goes something like this. " Lord don't make me so rich that i forget thee neither make me so poor that i curse thee"
JenellYB Posted August 17, 2011 Author Posted August 17, 2011 You are so right there. This compboaster is a good demonstration of money not guaranteed happiness..while I really don't beleive they are in the income range she hints at, they are still quite well off. And it seems to me it doesn't just not make her happy, it contributes to her unhappiness. This present compboasting about the large tax bill is just the latest and most 'out there', she is also one of those that insists she sees welfare people using food stamps at the supermarket buying expensive steaks and lobster and such that even she "can't afford." That she has to live off hamburger. Sometimes I think articulating, putting into words, to share with someone else, something that's on our mind, helps us see and think more clearly about a problem and how best to deal with it. Already this morning, she's on a rant about "her" money (tax) being thrown away on a Secret Service purchase of a couple of specially built security buses to be used transporting candidatesin the up-coming presidential election. Of course, she started her rant over Obama buying them so he and his family could travel in luxury, apparantly missing the part of the article she linked to on her FB about them being to protect all candidates during the campaign. When that was pointed out, she just shifted to how she doesn't think "her money" should be spent on anybody's campaign, ad nauseum... I've realized I need to take a break from her, stop letting her drama and anger into my life. I'm realizing she is very much one of those I described in a post to Bill under personal journey....one foot on the gas pushing the pedal to the metal, the other standing on the brake pedal, and the bands have started slipping, the gears are stripping, and the wheels are smoking. I need to take a break from that, however I can gracefully find a way to do so without inciting an upset and hard feelings from those in her part of my family circle. Her distress is definitely affecting my own serenity, harshing my mellow. But I am seeing more and more how it is unhappiness at the root of all this kind of attitude and behavior, how she cannot see or appreciate the blessings in her life. And for that, I must feel compassion. Jenell
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